Adalah's Newsletter Volume 39, August 2007

01/08/2007

Volume 39, August 2007

www.adalah.org

			Education Rights

		Adalah, The Association for the Development of Arab Education and 33 Arab Families Petition Supreme Court to Establish First Arab School for the Arts in Haifa

			Unrecognized Villages

		Following Urgent Motions filed by Adalah, Court Freezes Demolition Orders against 45 Houses in the Unrecognized Arab Bedouin Village of al-Sura in the Naqab

Adalah’s General Director Testifies before UN Special Committee Investigating Human Rights Violations against the Palestinian People

Torts and Torture

Adalah Demands Compensation for Arab Family Violently Assaulted by Police Officers

Adalah: Forcing Palestinian Detainees to Strip Naked is a Method of Torture Prohibited under International Law

Religious Rights

Supreme Court Orders State to Explain Failure to Recognize Muslim Religious Sites as Holy Sites and Provide Funds for their Protection

The Right to Life

The Ataa Center Demands that Winograd Committee Investigates Repercussions of the War on Lebanon on Arab Towns and Villages in Israel

Human Rights Defenders

United Against Torture Coalition Condemns Israel’s Administrative Detention of Human Rights Defender

EMHRN and its Member Organizations in Israel, the OPT and Europe Protest Israel’s Denial of Freedom of Movement to Human Rights Defenders from the Gaza Strip

Adalah’s Newsletter is a monthly publication issued in Arabic, Hebrew and English. It highlights Adalah’s main activities, provides analysis of human rights issues, and links to new reports. Suggestions, articles and commentaries from our readers are welcome. View previous volumes

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Opening Remarks

The Education Gap

Over the past decade, two main characteristics of the petitions filed by Adalah to the Supreme Court on behalf of Arab organizations in the field of education stand out. The first is the focus in these petitions on the very right of access to education in Arab towns and villages. For example, these petitions dealt with the lack of schools at all levels in certain areas, particularly the Naqab, the lack of suitable access roads to schools, the transport of pupils to schools located far from their homes, and the connection of schools to infrastructural services. The second characteristic is the focus on direct discrimination in the allocation of funding, for example, the challenge to the “Shahar” academic enrichment program’s application to Jewish students only, and the classification of 553 towns and villages as National Priority Areas “A” in the field of education, excluding all Arab towns except of four small villages. Last month, Adalah filed another kind of petition to the Supreme Court on behalf of 33 Arab families in Haifa. This petition demanded the establishment of the first special state school for the arts for Arab children. Today there are 25 special state art schools for Jewish pupils in Hebrew, and none for Arab pupils. This petition is indicative of the extent of discrimination and the huge gap between the Arab and Jewish education systems. At the same time as the Education Ministry funds tens of special state schools in various fields (such as art, music, science, technology, media and democratic schools) for Jewish students, Arab organizations are still struggling for the very existence of ordinary schools for Arab children.

Scholarships

Adalah Announces Scholarship for Arab Lawyers