Adalah's Newsletter Volume 38, July 2007

01/07/2007

Volume 38, July 2007

www.adalah.org

Jewish National Fund

Knesset Approves Bill on Preliminary Reading to Restrict Jewish National Fund Lands Exclusively to Jewish Citizens

• The bill
• Adalah’s position
• Links and further information

Unrecognized Villages

Home Demolitions in Umm el-Hieran in the Naqab are Illegal and in Breach of the Principle of the Rule of Law

• Photographs of the demolitions
• UN CERD Concluding Observation on the unrecognized villages, 2007

Closure of Karni Crossing

Adalah to Supreme Court: Israel is Using Excuse of no Coordination with Palestinians to Withhold Basic Goods

Gaza Situation Reports:
• PSCC
• OCHA
• GISHA

Criminal Justice

Adalah to AG: Cancel Decision to Close Case of Police Brutality Against 66-Year Old Arab Man Protesting against Land Policies in the Naqab for “Lack of Public Interest”

Economic and Social Rights

Supreme Court Grants State Four Months to Provide Updated Information about Changes to Income Tax Law that Awards Tax Benefits to Towns Bordering Gaza

New Publication

The Accused – A Report Determining Criminal and Public Responsibility for the Killing of Arab Citizens in October 2000
Arabic | Hebrew | English (summary)

International Advocacy

Third Annual Review on Human Rights in EU/Israel Relations The Review | The Executive Summary

What is the impact of the EU-Israel Action Plan on Human Rights in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
The Report | The Executive Summary

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

Colonial Laws

On 18 July 2007, the Israeli Knesset approved on preliminary reading a racist bill that prohibits the sale of lands registered in the name of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) to Arab citizens of the state. According to the legislature’s logic, the JNF acquired these lands using Jewish money for the sake of Jews only. Firstly, this is untrue as the State of Israel transferred approximately two million dunams of land – seized and confiscated from Arab “absentee” owners – to the JNF in 1949 and 1953, via arbitrary laws. Secondly, the Knesset’s attempt to enact the JNF’s policy into law does not absolve Israel from its obligations under international law to refrain from legislating racist laws or including discriminatory bodies in official decision-making institutions. Israeli law allows the JNF to hold decision-making positions in the Israel Land Administration, for example. Significantly, two months ago the UN rejected the JNF’s application for consultative status on the ground that the JNF violates the principles of the UN Charter regarding human rights. Today, the JNF controls 13% of the land in the state, which allows for the establishment of Jewish-only towns. This new bill, alongside the racist Citizenship Law that forbids the unification of Arab families in Israel, are primarily and directly targeted against the native inhabitants of the country. They aim to preclude the development of the native inhabitants and to enable Israel to maintain control and ethnic supremacy for Jews in the fields of natural resources and entry into the state. Thus both possess the basic characteristics of colonial laws.

Interview

With former Adalah Attorney Marwan Dalal, appointed as a prosecutor to the ICTY