Adalah: Using Military Service Criterion as a Condition for Employing Railway Guards is Illegal and Will Result in Arab Workers Being Fired
On 23 March 2009, Adalah sent a letter to the Ministry of Transport and the Israel Railway Company demanding that they refrain from imposing the criterion of military service as a condition for the employment of railways guards.
As Adalah stated in the letter, according to a new agreement between the company that employs railway guards and the Israel Railway Company, the railway guard company will only employ workers who have served in the Israeli military. The company currently employs over 130 Arab workers, whom the decision will discriminate against, as Arab citizens of Israel are exempt from military service on the basis of their national belonging. The decision would result in these workers being fired from their jobs and would prevent Arab workers from being employed by the company in the future. The decision, therefore, violates the constitutional right of these workers to freedom of occupation. The discrimination is all the more severe considering that the post of railway guard is civilian and not military in nature.
In the letter, Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher argued that the use of the military service criterion as a condition for employing workers contradicts Israeli case law, in particular a decision delivered on a petition filed to the Haifa District Court by Adalah. The petition challenged Haifa University’s policy of giving priority in the allocation of student accommodation to students who have served in the army. In the decision, the court ruled that the use of the military service criterion led to discrimination against Arab students on the ground that they are exempt from serving in the Israel army.
Under Israeli law, all citizens of Israel must be afforded equal opportunities in employment. Adalah contended that The Israel Railway Company, as a governmental authority, is obliged to respect the existing legal and constitutional directives that prohibit discrimination on the basis of national belonging.
