Adalah holds 8th Annual Law Students' Camp
Adalah’s 8th Arab Law Students’ Camp
Field trip to the Naqab, lectures, panels and workshops on discriminatory laws and their effects on Arab citizens of Israel
On 19-21 September 2013, Adalah held its 8th annual Arab law students’ camp for dozens of participants who study at law schools throughout Israel. The title of this year’s event was Arab Citizens and Discriminatory Laws.
The aim of the camp is to inform Arab law students in Israel about legal issues relevant to them that are not generally addressed in their university and college courses, and to raise their awareness about human rights in general and the rights of the Arab minority in particular. Given that they are taught and will practice law in Hebrew, the camp also gives the students a valuable opportunity to discuss professional legal issues in their own language, Arabic.
The camp began with a field trip to the Naqab/Negev, where the students visited a number of unrecognized and recently-recognized Arab Bedouin villages. They heard personal testimonies from residents and from tour guide Dr. Thabet Abu Rass, who spoke about the anticipated ramifications of the Prawer Plan. They also visited a high school in the newly-recognized village of Abu Tulul, which opened after an eight-year legal struggle by Adalah.
The program included a panel discussion on the legal status of Arab citizens of Israel in the shadow of the current wave of new discriminatory legislation, and a comparison between the status of the Arab minority in Israel and minorities in other states. The speakers were Dr. Hala Khoury-Bisharat, Chairperson of Adalah’s Board of Directors; Knesset Member Dov Khenin; Dr. Yousef Taysir Jabareen; and Attorney Hassan Jabareen, the General Director of Adalah. Another panel discussed perspectives on the struggle to end discrimination and racism against the Arab minority, and included speakers Prof. As’ad Ghanem of the University of Haifa; Ja’far Farah, the General Director of Mossawa; and Attorney Auni Banna of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). The speakers evaluated the various means employed to date by Arab citizens, primarily the political struggle in parliament, the grassroots struggle, and the legal struggle, and ways of using them more effectively in the future. The panel also discussed the participants’ roles as law students and future lawyers in their society’s struggle against discrimination and racism.
The students also took part in workshops, in which they discussed the effects of discriminatory laws on the lives of Arab citizens, laws which span the fields of land and planning, discrimination in socio-economic rights, and the ‘Jewish nature’ of the state and its impact on the identity and status of Arab citizens. Adalah’s lawyers led the workshops.
Other speakers included journalist Gideon Levy, who provided the students with a detailed account of the roots and prevalence of racism in Israeli society. Another highlight of the camp was a human rights bazaar, at which civil society organizations presented their goals, work, and publications, and spoke to the students about volunteer and career opportunities.
The camp concluded with a keynote lecture by Attorney Hussein Abu Hussein, a member of Adalah’s Board of Directors, on providing legal advice to protestors and demonstrators. The lecture touched on the different kinds of protest, and explained in which cases the organizers must obtain permits. Attorney Abu Hussein also advised the students on procedures for visiting protestors detained at police stations and representing detained protestors before the courts.
See photos of the law students camp
Read the program
