After Years of Legal Struggle, Israeli Supreme Court Orders Community Town in Northern Israel to Admit Arab Family
(Haifa, Israel) On 13 September 2011, the Supreme Court of Israel accepted a petition filed by Adalah on behalf of married Arab couple Ms. Fatina Ebriq Zubeidat and Mr. Ahmed Zubeidat against the community town of Rakefet and the Israel Land Authority (ILA). The Court ordered the town to award a plot of land to the Zubeidat's for building a house in Rakefet within 90 days. The decision came after the Admissions Committee for Rakefet rejected the couple’s application to live in the town on several occasions, claiming that they were "socially unsuitable" to live in the community town. Supreme Court Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch and Justices Elyakim Rubinstein and Edna Arbel delivered the decision.
Following the ruling, the Zubeidat's stated that: “We commend the court’s ruling and think that our case, which has been pending for close to six years, proves that the system of admissions committees, which were approved by the Knesset, is absurd, discriminates against Arab citizens, and has no social logic whatsoever.”
Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara, who submitted the petition on behalf of the couple and in Adalah’s own name, stated that, “We welcome the decision, but at the same time we regret that the family was forced to wage a legal battle for almost six years after an admissions committee rejected them just for being Arab. We hope that the case of the Zubeidat family will convince the Supreme Court to accept the principle arguments in Adalah’s petition against the Admissions Committee Law, enacted by the Knesset in March 2011. This petition is still pending before the Supreme Court and will be heard by an expanded panel of nine justices.”
Adalah filed the petition in its own name and on behalf of the Zubeidat family and human rights and social change organizations Another Voice in the Galilee (Kol Aher BaGalil), the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow (HaKeshet), Bimkom: Planners for Planning Rights, the Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance, and the Arab Center for Alternative Planning.
Fatina Ebriq Zubeidat and Mr. Ahmed Zubeidat are Arab citizens of Israel who both graduated from the College of Architecture at the “Bezalel” Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem with distinction. After marrying in the summer of 2006, the couple applied to live in Rakefet, which falls within the jurisdiction of the Misgav Regional Council in the north of Israel. They were looking for a small, un-crowded town offering a high level of services, and in which they would be able to build a house according to their own architectural preferences and to raise their children.
In accordance with ILA regulations, the couple was required to pass an acceptance test that included criteria for “social suitability”, one of the criteria for acceptance to community towns. Following their meeting with the Misgav Regional Admissions Committee, they were informed that their request had been denied on the humiliating ground of their “social unsuitability”. They then approached Adalah, which petitioned the Supreme Court on their behalf against the decision and against the operation of admissions committees in community towns in general.
Case Citations:
HCJ 8036/07, Fatina Ebriq Zubeidat, et al. v. The Israel Land Administration (Authority), et al.
HCJ 2504/11, Adalah, et al. v. The Knesset, et al. (case pending)
