JERUSALEM – March 17, 2008 – The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) will argue before the High Court of Justice at a hearing on Wednesday that the State must cease enforcing humiliating and painstaking airport security checks against Israeli Arab citizens because of their nationality. The hearing will take place on Wednesday, March 19, 2008, at 9 a.m. at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem.
In its petition against racial profiling at airports, ACRI emphasized the fact that airport security staff perform meticulous and often degrading checks on Arab citizens systematically, using nationality as the only criterion for the check and not the suspicion of a security threat. These inspections are not performed at the same rate on Jewish travelers. Though the State claims it will drastically improve the efficiency of airport security checks and make them less intrusive in the coming years, it has not addressed the fact that it equates race with level of security threat.
Racial profiling constitutes a grave violation of Arab citizens’ rights to dignity, privacy, equality, and freedom of movement. ACRI argues that for Arab citizens of Israel, these airport security checks have become the rule and not the exception, and the State must eliminate this practice immediately.
The petition was filed against the Israel Airports Authority, the General Security Services, and the Transportation Ministry by ACRI Attorney Auni Banna on May 31, 2007. For background information, click here.
