After a Five Year Legal Struggle Community Town in Northern Israel is Forced to Admit Arab Family

In an exceptional move, and contrary to the recommendation of the Israel Land Authority's (ILA) Appeals Committee, the acting General Director of the ILA, Mr. Ronen Cohen Schorr, accepted a request by an Arab family to live in the community town of Rakefet in the Western Galilee. Previous requests by the couple to live in the town were turned down on four occasions, twice by the Rakefet "Admissions Committee" and twice by the ILA's Appeals Committee. Mr. Cohen Schorr’s decision contradicted the majority opinion of the Appeals Committee that considered the family’s request, which voted to 2-1 not to give the family permission to live in Rakefet, because of their supposed unsuitability to the social life in the town.

The decision follows a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court filed by Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara in 2007 on behalf of married couple Ms. Fatina Ebriq Zubeidat and Mr. Ahmed Zubeidat against the Rakefet Admissions Committee, which rejected their request to live in the town, and against the ILA, demanding the cancellation of the mechanism of admissions committees in general. In February 2010, the Supreme Court decided that the couple should send a further request to the Rakefet Admissions Committee, and that in case it was rejected that they should approach the ILA's Appeals Committee, which is the final arbiter in the matter.

The Zubeidat couple are both Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel who 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 filed an application 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 the future.

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.

In an attempt to block the petition, and given the response it received from the Supreme Court in its deliberations on the case, in March 2011 the Israeli Knesset enacted a law that legitimizes the operation of admissions committees, which had been functioning without legal authority. The law grants legal legitimacy to admission committees for almost 700 small community towns located in the Naqab (Negev) and the Galilee. In response, Adalah filed another petition in which it demanded that the Supreme Court strike down this racist law.

The petition against the law, submitted by Adalah Attorneys Suhad Bishara and Haneen Naamnih, argued that although one of the provisions of the law states that there is a duty to respect the right to equality and to prevent discrimination against any individual, the law allows these committees to reject applications from people on the grounds that they are "unsuitable to the social life of the community… or the social and cultural fabric of the town". In addition, the law authorizes admission committees to adopt special criteria determined by community towns in their bylaws based on the "special characteristics" of each town. For example, a number of community towns, especially those situated adjacent to Arab towns and villages, have defined themselves in their bylaws as towns with a "Zionist vision", thereby paving the way for the rejection of non-Jewish candidates. However, the majority of community towns do not have special social or cultural characteristics that would justify subjecting residency applicants to tests of "social suitability".

Case Citations:

HCJ 8036/07, Fatina Ebriq Zubeidat, et al. v. The Israel Land Administration, et al. (case pending)

HCJ 2504/11, Adalah, et al. v. The Knesset, et al. (case pending)
The Petition (Hebrew)

See Haaretz coverage:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israeli-arab-couple-wins-legal-battle-to-build-home-in-northern-jewish-town-1.382750