ACRI Protects the Right to Demonstrate
Israel protesters stumble across police bureaucracy – May 16, 2012 (Haaretz)
The Hadera police chief, Chief Superintendent Benny Harnes, responding to a query from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, said that because the numbers of protesters and the activities changed every week, “there was a clear need for an organizer who submits a request.” He said that because Ashkenazi’s name was on the form, she bore responsibility for any deviations.
Last week ACRI attorney Nira Shalev wrote to the police legal adviser,Chief Superintendent Shaul Gordon, asking that he end what she called constant infringements of the right to demonstrate and that police be refreshed on the legal aspects of breaking up demonstrations.
J’lem police deny social protestors Zion Square – May 30, 2012 (Jerusalem Post)
Jerusalem police will no longer allow demonstrations in downtown Zion Square – the central home of protests in the capital for decades – because they would interrupt the service of the light rail, police said on Wednesday.
[…] The social movement activists and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel plan to petition the High Court of Justice over the issue of using Zion Square for protests. “This sweeping policy does not abide by the constitutional status of the right to demonstrate and clearly contradicts court rulings, which require maintaining a balance between the right to protest and temporary and specific disturbances to traffic,” said ACRI attorney Sharona Eliahu-Chai in a statement released by her office.
Accusation: Jlem Police Preventing Protests – May 29, 2012 (Arutz Sheva)
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has threatened to file suit if police do not authorize a protest soon.The police policy “does not sit well with the legal right to protest, and clearly contradicts a verdict requiring a compromise between the right to protest and temporary disturbances in the flow of traffic,” the group argued.
Jerusalem Day Report – Poverty in East Jerusalem
Report: 78% of East Jerusalem Palestinians live in poverty – May 20, 2012 (Haaretz)
According to the report by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the 360,000 Palestinian residents of the city – 38 percent of Jerusalem’s total population – have reached the highest poverty rate ever in 2011. By comparison, in 2006, 64 percent of the Palestinian population and 73 percent of the children lived under the poverty line.
The report, titled “Policies of Neglect in East Jerusalem” points out “limited employment opportunities, a severely depleted educational system, and a systematic lack of physical and economic infrastructure.”
ACRI: 78% of east Jerusalem in poverty – May 24, 2012 (Jerusalem Post)
Poverty is increasing in east Jerusalem, especially among children, according to a new report released by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel this week. The National Insurance Institute found that 78% of residents and 84% of children lived under the poverty line in east Jerusalem in 2010. This is even higher than the poverty rate for 2006, when 64% of east Jerusalem and 73% of children lived under the poverty line.
The lies of Jerusalem – May 21, 2012 (Haaretz)
Jerusalem Day, which was celebrated on Sunday for the 45th time by great crowds and with spirited declarations of public figures, is supposed to mark the unification of the two halves of the capital after the Six-Day War. Each year the gulf between the festive joy of the Jews and the alienation felt by their Arab neighbors widens.
[…] A new report by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel – highlights of which were published Sunday in Haaretz – shows that Jerusalem is less deserving than ever of being called a united city. The insupportable policy of “Judaizing Jerusalem” has not succeeded in keeping Palestinians out of the city (where they comprise 38 percent of the population); it exacerbates their already difficult living conditions and heightens their hostility to Israeli rule.
Decades after ‘unification’, Jerusalem is divided – May 19, 2012 (France24)
Life is also far more crowded, with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) saying Palestinians are allowed to build on just 17 percent of the land in east Jerusalem, where vast tracts are set aside for national parks and settlements.
And even where building is allowable, permission is rarely granted, ACRI says, noting that just 13 percent of all municipal building permits issued between 2005 and 2009 went to Palestinians.
Racism in Israeli Airports
Airport transportation director: No Arab cabbies allowed – May 23, 2012 (Times of Israel)
The transportation director at Ben Gurion Airport issued a directive last month ordering cab companies serving the airport to stop employing Arab drivers, enraging Israeli civil rights group ACRI (the Association for Civil Rights in Israel).
[…] ACRI has demanded that Airport Authority director Yaakov Ganot act immediately to cancel the directive by Ben Gurion transportation director Shuki Shemer, since it is in violation of Israel’s Equality of Opportunity in Employment Law.
[…] In her letter, ACRI’s attorney Tal Hassin stressed that the request is patently illegal, not only because of the obviously discriminatory nature of the request, but because the Airport Authority is a government authority and therefore is subject to heightened public scrutiny and has a greater duty to promote equality according to law.
State given 6 months to answer petition on airport security bias – May 22, 2012 (Ynet)
The High Court of Justice has given the Israel Airports Authority, the Shin Bet, and the Transportation Ministry six months to announce what action they intend to take to minimize bias in airport security checks.
[…] The ruling comes in response to a petition by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which argued that the current policy mandates much harsher security checks for Arab citizens than for Jewish Israelis.
High Court Petition against “Big Brother Law”
Bill aims to enable agencies to track citizens’ every move – May 17, 2012 (Ynet)
The Justice Ministry is seeking to significantly expand the number of government agencies authorized to track the moves of citizens for investigation purposes, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday.
[…] Attorney Avner Pinchuk of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said that the bill is “puzzling and disconcerting.” ACRI and the Bar Association have petitioned the High Court of Justice against the original law.
High Court upholds legality of ‘Big Brother’ legislation – May 29, 2012 (Haaretz)
The High Court of Justice upheld the constitutionality of a 2008 law allowing state investigators to obtain information about citizens’ telephone, e-mail and text message use, on Monday. However, the justices also imposed restrictions on the collection of information under the Communication Data Law, popularly known as the “Big Brother Law,” specifying it can only be used in investigations of specific suspects or victims […] The ruling came in response to separate petitions submitted in 2008 by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Israel Bar Association.
High Court rejects petitions against ‘big brother’ law – May 28, 2012 (Ynet)
The petitioners – the Israel Bar Association and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel – claimed that the bill infringes upon the right to privacy in an disproportional manner, and could also violate the immunity granted to lawyers, doctors, journalists and other professionals.
Intensifying Incitement against Asylum Seekers
Likud MK warns ‘south Tel Aviv under siege’ – May 29, 2012 (Jerusalem Post)
A Knesset Interior Committee meeting descended into a shouting match on Tuesday as MKs competed with one another over who could take a harder line on African migrants. […] [MK Nitzan Horowitz] noted that representatives of human rights organizations, including the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Amnesty International, had boycotted the meeting, saying they were right for not wanting to deal with the shouting.
As migrant crisis deepens, PM promises ‘responsible solution,’ slams racist tone of protests – May 24, 2012 (Times of Israel)
Association for Civil Rights in Israel lawyer Oded Feller said the government should heed the police’s recommendation that the African migrants be allowed to work. Such a move would reduce their need to steal for food, he said.
Bill to Prohibit Use of Nazi Symbols
Survivors back criminalizing Nazi symbols – May 30, 2012 (Jerusalem Post)
While civil rights groups argued the bill would harm freedom of expression, Holocaust survivors said that although free speech was important, there should be limits.
[…] Attorney Lila Margalit of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) also attended the hearing and expressed her opposition to the bill. “The importance and centrality of the Holocaust serve only to exacerbate the gravity of this attempt to dictate when and in what context it is permissible to mention this event,” Margalit wrote in a letter to committee chairman MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beytenu) on Tuesday.
Banning Nazi Symbols a Blow to Free Speech? – May 30, 2012 (Arutz Sheva)
A ban on the use of Nazi terminology and symbols would deal a blow to free speech, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel argued Wednesday. The association is calling on the Knesset’s Constitution Committee to nix the proposed ban.
Nighttime Prison Raid
Scant Response to Video of a Violent Israeli Prison Night Search – May 17, 2012 (Forward)
Last February, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and four other Israeli not-for-profit groups petitioned the high court, asking it to compel the attorney general to open criminal investigations in all claims of the use of force during interrogations.
Deportation of South Sudanese Asylum Seekers
Deportation of South Sudanese is legal, ministry says – May 15, 2012 (Times of Israel)
“If deported, asylum seekers may be exposed to grave dangers — from internecine fighting, famine, and lack of basic services like health care and water,” a spokesman for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, or ACRI, told The Times of Israel recently, adding that women and children would be especially at risk. “Other countries have taken note of these conditions — the United States has extended collective protection for South Sudanese refugees until May 2013.”
Biometric ID Cards
Government green lights ‘smart’ ID cards program – May 16, 2012 (Jerusalem Post)
The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approved changes to the Population Registry regulations on Wednesday – including regarding the issuance of planned new “smart” electronic ID cards.
[…] Opponents of the biometric ID card plans, including attorney Avner Pinchuk from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, have warned of “irreversible damage” should Israelis’ biometric data, including fingerprints, be leaked. ACRI says such a leak could greatly increase the risk of identity theft, and that this is a particular concern in the wake of a massive Population Registry data theft.
American Jews Respond to Anti-Democratic Initiatives in Israel
When Israel lacks leadership, we should speak up – May 21, 2012 (JTA)
Israel’s ruling coalition came to power through elections and presumes to represent most Israelis. An Israeli government, however, that is trying to turn majority rule into majority tyranny undermines democracy. Don’t take my word for it. Visit the website of the Israeli Democracy Institute or the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
Petition against the “Nakba Law”
Erasing the Nakba – May 17, 2012 (Al-Jazeera)
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Adalah (The Legal Center for the Arab Minority in Israel) immediately filed a petition with the supreme court, arguing that the new law constituted a grave violation of the freedom of speech and was part of “a political persecution campaign that aims to de-legitimise an entire population of Israel’s citizenry”.
On January 5, 2012, the Supreme Court published its ruling, rejecting the appeal, and upholding the Nakba Law. […] As Dan Yakir from the Association for Civil Rights stated: “The court completely ignored the claims regarding the chilling effect of this law, which forces state-supported entities to risk a significant reduction in their budgets before the law will be considered for judicial review. In this, it limits free speech.” Yakir’s point was that the law harms both the freedom of expression and the civil rights of Arab citizens, even before its implementation, because the law’s formulation is so broad and vague, many institutions have already begun to censor themselves so as not to risk incurring penalties.
