Photo by Emily SchneiderThe High Court of Justice accepted today (22 May 2012) some of the petitions filed by local councils, ACRI, and Adalah – demanding to cancel tax benefits that were granted only to Jewish residential communities.
In 2005 the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Adalah filed petitions asking the High Court to overturn part of the law amending the Income Tax Ordinance, which granted income tax benefits to the residents of certain locales. Initially, the benefits were intended to aid the residents in communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip; however, during the legislative process other locales were added to the list of eligible communities for political reasons and without defining practical and equal criteria.
Even though Arab communities are at the bottom of socioeconomic rankings in Israel, not even one of them was included among those eligible for benefits. During deliberations, the State Attorney admitted that the definition of eligible communities is faulty and the Tax Authority admitted, with regards to some of the communities included in the list, that “one can only wonder how they got there.”
Following the court’s decision, ACRI attorney Auni Banna stated: “A government can decide to grant tax benefits to those who truly deserve it. Equality, social justice, and proper administration mean, first and foremost, that making such decisions will be done on the basis of equal and transparent criteria. The fact that no Arab community was included in the list of eligible communities is just another example of the systematic and institutionalized discrimination of Arab citizens of Israel and of the corrupt political culture that benefits close associates.”
Adalah attorney Sawsan Zaher: “We welcome the court’s ruling, although it should be noted that this petition was deliberated by the court for 7 years and throughout this time the government and the Knesset did nothing to alleviate the situation. We hope that the government and Knesset will abide by this ruling and amend the law in a manner that ensures equality to all citizens, while giving weight to the poor socioeconomic situation of Arab communities in general and of Arab-Bedouin communities in the Negev in particular. The State must include these communities in the list of those eligible for tax benefits.”
The full court ruling (in Hebrew)
