Israeli Supreme Court Hearing on Discriminatory ‘Admissions Committee Law’ to be held before 9 Justices - Tuesday 4 December 2012
Israeli Supreme Court Hearing on Discriminatory ‘Admissions Committee Law’
to be held before 9 Justices
Tuesday 4 December 2012, 9 am, Jerusalem
(Haifa, Israel) At 9 am on Tuesday, 4 December 2012, an expanded panel of nine Supreme Court justices will hear final arguments on a case challenging the constitutionality of the discriminatory “Admissions Committee Law.” Adalah and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel each filed a petition against the law. The Knesset passed the law in March 2011, which allows 475 small communities in Israel (with less than 400 families) built on 'state land' (public land) to reject applicants who "do not suit the lifestyle and social fabric of the community." The law covers small towns in the Galilee and in the Naqab (Negev), or 46% of communities in Israel and 65% of all rural communities.
Israeli Supreme Court Hearing on Discriminatory ‘Admissions Committee Law’
to be held before 9 Justices
Tuesday 4 December 2012, 9 am, Jerusalem
(Haifa, Israel) At 9 am on Tuesday, 4 December 2012, an expanded panel of nine Supreme Court justices will hear final arguments on a case challenging the constitutionality of the discriminatory “Admissions Committee Law.” Adalah and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel each filed a petition against the law. The Knesset passed the law in March 2011, which allows 475 small communities in Israel (with less than 400 families) built on 'state land' (public land) to reject applicants who "do not suit the lifestyle and social fabric of the community." The law covers small towns in the Galilee and in the Naqab (Negev), or 46% of communities in Israel and 65% of all rural communities.
The nine Supreme Court Justices who will hear the case are: Chief Justice Asher Grunis, and Justices Miram Naor, Edna Arbel, Elyakim Rubenstein, Salim Joubran, Esther Hayut, Hanan Melcer, Yoram Denizer, and Neal Hendel.
In final arguments submitted to the Supreme Court today, Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara emphasized that the admissions committee criteria specified in the law are vague and unclear. The law violates the principle of equality and the rights to dignity and privacy, and its core and basic idea is discrimination. Practically, Adalah pointed out that the law validates and legalizes all bases for exclusion by admission committees, which overwhelming bars Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel from living in these towns. Other marginalized groups, such as LGBT persons, the disabled, single parents, and Mizrahim are also often rejected. If the Supreme Court approves the law, it will give full discretion to admissions committees to exclude families on any premise, opening the door wide for blatant racism and discrimination in housing.
In January 2012, the Attorney General asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the petitions on the grounds that they are premature and theoretical, as the law itself has not been used to bar any applicant from these small communities until now. The state added that the law permits the towns to screen applicants based on their "suitability to the community" makeup and whether they meet the social-cultural fabric of the town as it currently exists, failing to note that all towns that meet the law’s requirements are all Jewish communities. The state also argued that the law forbids exclusion based on race, religion, gender, or nationality.
In February 2012, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in its Concluding Observations on Israel (para. 11) that, “The enactment of the Admissions Committees Law (2011), which gives private committees full discretion to reject applicants deemed “unsuitable to the social life of the community”, is a clear sign that the concerns as regards segregation remain pressing …and the Committee urges the State party .. to make every effort to eradicate all forms of segregation between Jewish and non-Jewish communities.”
Case Citation: HCJ 2504/11, Adalah, et al v. The Knesset, et al. (case pending)
Contacts: Adalah Media Director, Salah Mohsen, salah@adalah.org, mobile: 0525950922 or Edan Ring, edan@unik.co.il, mobile: 054-668-0085
