In this Edition:
- ACRI Op-Eds
- ACRI Takes Discriminatory Municipalities to Court
- Fighting Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP)
- Challenging the Infiltration Law and Protecting Refugees
- Setting the Agenda for Obama’s Visit to Israel
- ACRI’s Conclusions from the Case of Prisoner X
- Combating Racism in Schools and on the Street
- Fighting the “Prawer-Begin” Plan on Behalf of Negev Bedouin
- Reporting on Poverty and Neglect in East Jerusalem
- ACRI Petitions Courts on Behalf of Palestinian Residents of the OPT
- ACRI Condemns Violations of West Bank Palestinians’ Individual Rights
ACRI Op-Eds
What’s So Special About One Israeli TV Personality’s Racism – April 29, 2013 (Haaretz) by Rawia Aburabia, ACRI director of project on Rights of the Negev Bedouin
“After decades of discrimination and neglect, the Bedouin community is ready for change. It is better educated, and it is much more willing to participate in civil discourse and constructive dialogue with the authorities and with Israeli society as a whole. A government policy whose entire purpose is to reduce the Bedouin community’s living space while cutting off its livelihood will result only in poverty, frustration, and alienation.”
Pushing Israel’s Asylum Seekers Into A Legal Twilight Zone – April 18, 2013 (Haaretz) by Oded Feller, ACRI Attorney
“For years, the State of Israel has implemented a policy full of contradictions. It avoids deporting most of the asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea because of the danger awaiting them in their countries of origin. Yet, at the same time, it refuses to recognize them as refugees and insists on calling them “infiltrators.” … In this way, the State of Israel pushes asylum seekers into a legal twilight zone.”
Are We Closer Or Further Away From An Israel To Be Proud Of? – March, 21, 2013 (The Jewish News, UK) by Hagai El-Ad, ACRI Executive Director
“This is about an ongoing reality which, in and of itself, creates endless human rights violations that will end if – and only when – the occupation itself ends… While we look away, a system that no matter how you call it will always remain unjustifiable only keeps getting further entrenched.”
Separate Buses Just A Symptom – March 16, 2013 (Y-Net) by Maskit Bendel, ACRI attorney
“The separate bus lines are merely a visual expression of the complete segregation that exists in the West Bank between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in every aspect of daily life. This segregation is both physical and legal.”
The Racism Epidemic – March 27, 2013 (Y-Net) by Sami Michael, ACRI President (adapted from speech on March 17th)
“I cannot comprehend how victims of racism can themselves be racist; how the remaining two-thirds of the fatal epidemic of racism could establish a state in which racism holds a chilling grip, from the soccer stadiums to the political world, and on to all forms of culture.”
ACRI Takes Discriminatory Municipalities to Court
Jerusalem’s Begin Expressway Plan Angers Arab Neighborhood – March 7, 2013 (Los Angeles Times)
If completed as planned in 2015, the nearly 1-mile extension of Jerusalem’s Begin Expressway will slice through the neighborhood of Beit Safafa, home to about 12,000 Arabs.
“There is a big gap between what the city says and what is happening on the ground in East Jerusalem,” said attorney and Beit Safafa resident Nisreen Aylan of the Assn. for Civil Rights in Israel. “No other community has been divided like this.”
Tel Aviv Homeless Shelter Illegally Bars Entry to HIV Carriers – March 11, 2013 (Haaretz)
A Tel Aviv homeless shelter for drug and alcohol addicts bars entrance to HIV/AIDS patients in violation of the law but says the move is necessary due to concerns about needle sharing.
“Under no circumstances can services be denied to a homeless HIV carrier on the grounds that the nature of the service or place requires it,” said Attorney Gil Gan-Mor, director of the Association for Civil Rights’ Right to Housing Program. In a letter to City Hall, he added that even if HIV carriers weren’t considered people who suffer disabilities, it would still be illegal to deny them access to homeless shelters based on the constitutional right to equality.
Modi’in Nixes Policy Keeping Nonresidents Out Of City Park – March 21, 2013 (Times of Israel)
Several months after closing a large park in the city over the holiday to keep out nonresidents, the city of Modi’in said it would rescind the policy, which drew fire from civil rights activists and neighbors who said it stood on dubious legal ground.
In response to the restrictive policy, which was enacted shortly before the Sukkot holiday in October 2012, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel sent a letter to the municipality, warning that the restriction was illegal as it violates the right to equality and in practice constitutes prohibited discrimination against a religious group.
“Restricting nonresidents’ entry to the park is illegal and constitutes prohibited discrimination,” said ACRI attorney Gil Gan-Mor.
C’tee Accused Of Illegal Construction Plan In E. Jerusalem – April 22, 2013 (Jerusalem Post)
In a petition submitted Sunday to the Jerusalem Administrative Court, two human rights organizations requested the District Committee for Planning and Building cease treating the unauthorized “Jerusalem 2000 Outline Plan” as a ratified legal document.
“The already limited opportunities faced by east Jerusalem residents in developing their neighborhoods and receiving building permits are being further restricted by the decision to consider the unapproved outline plan as a ‘policy document’” she [ACRI attorney Keren Tzafrir] continued.
NGOs Slam J’Lem City Plan For Harming Palestinians – April 23, 2013 (The Times of Israel)
Two human rights groups on Sunday petitioned the Jerusalem District Court to prevent Jerusalem City Hall from using a non-approved plan as a formula for rejecting new building and development plans, specifically in East Jerusalem.
The petition was submitted by The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Bimkom.
In a media statement issued Sunday, Bimkom and ACRI stressed that the “unreasonable state of affairs has caused particularly severe harm to the rights and living conditions of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem.”
Mayor Plans To Limit Arab Growth in Nazareth – April 18, 2013 (Al-Monitor)
It is estimated that close to 20% of Upper Nazareth’s 52,000 residents are Arabs. The Arab students – who currently number about two thousand – have to travel to schools outside the city, in nearby Arab villages. “In the absence of adequate educational frameworks, the Arab residents’ right to accessible and available education and equal allocation of public and municipal resources is infringed on,” states Ashraf Elias from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) in his appeal to Mayor Gapso, demanding that an educational framework for the Arab students be set up.
Fighting Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP)
Israel’s Latest Trend: Using Courts to Cow Critics – March 20, 2013 (Haaretz)
Together, the trends could potentially deter citizens from speaking out on issues of public concern, out of fear of exposure to potentially expensive, long-running defamation suits whose outcome is uncertain.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel recently issued a survey of the filing of defamation suits aimed at curbing criticism and freedom of expression on issues of public concern, or SLAPPs − Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. According to the ACRI report, “The Silencer: Libel Litigation as a Threat to Free Speech,” the number of threats to file such suits and actual suits is increasing in Israel.
Challenging the Infiltration Law and Protecting Refugees
High Court: State Must Defend African Migrant Law – March 12, 2013 (The Jerusalem Post)
The High Court of Justice on Tuesday issued a conditional order against the state regarding the Law to Prevent Infiltration, demanding that it respond to the claim that the law violates the fundamental rights of African migrants. The law authorizes the administrative detention of migrants without a trial for a term of three years.
According to ACRI, most of the people being held under the law are citizens of Sudan and Eritrea, countries to which “the Israeli government itself recognizes that it cannot deport people because of their expected fate upon their return.” The petition argued that Israeli and international law prohibit the detention of migrants in cases where they cannot be deported.
UN Refugee Agency Petitions High Court To Overturn ‘Infiltration’ Law – March 12, 2013 (Haaretz)
In a precedent-setting move, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees submitted a request to file a friend of the court brief with the High Court of Justice last Thursday. The case is a petition by all the human rights organizations fighting for refugee rights in Israel and a number of illegal immigrants seeking asylum − and it asks the High Court to make an exceptional decision and rule a law unconstitutional: The Law for the Prevention of Infiltration.
Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein’s decision to ban the deportation of Eritrean nationals in Israeli custody does not apply to migrants from Sudan, according to a letter by Deputy Attorney General Dina Silber obtained by Haaretz.
Following Silber’s letter, Yonatan Berman of the Clinic for Immigrants’ Rights and Oded Feller of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel asked Weinstein for clarifications.
Bill Cleared To Prevent Migrants In Israel From Transferring Money Abroad – April 22, 2013 (Haaretz)
A committee of legislative ministers on Sunday approved a bill that would forbid illegal migrants from sending money abroad while living in Israel. The bill was proposed by Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who said it is “meant to use economic means to deal with the phenomenon of infiltrators in Israel.”
Association of Civil Rights in Israel attorney Oded Feller said Sunday that the bill is flawed. “The bill essentially seeks to allow the state to steal money and property from refugees as they leave Israel.”
Setting the Agenda for Obama’s Visit to Israel
You’re Not A Tourist, Obama. Go To Israel With A Message – March 15, 2013 (The Guardian)
If he actually means the words he’ll spend several days repearting – about the great friendship between the US and Israel – if he truly cares about Israel, he cannot come as a mere tourist. He must come with a message. He should listen to those who understand this occupation best, because they understand that it has to end.
As Hagai El-Ad of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel puts it, when things seem to be standing still they are always changing, most obviously through the creation of “facts on the ground,” the expanding Israeli settlements on the West Bank.
ACRI’s Conclusions from the Case of Prisoner X
New Details Released On Death Of Israeli Spy – April 25, 2013 (The New York Times)
The reports released Thursday include previously unreported narrative details of that day.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, an advocacy group, noted that the judge had found both “systematic failures” of communication among prison workers and “pinpoint failures” specific to Mr. Zygier, like the camera and staffing problems the day he died.
Combating Racism in Schools and on the Street
When Racist Expressions Are No Longer The Exception – March 23, 2013 (Haaretz)
Over the past four years, the Education Ministry has been apathetic, at best, to efforts to battle racism and to promote the study of coexistence between Jews and Arabs. In other cases, it has even censored information relating to more than a few incidents.
A conference was to be held last Sunday at the Seminar HaKibbutzim Teachers College, in conjunction with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, focusing on the war the education establishment should be waging against racism.
Attacks And Anti-Arab Bigotry ‘More Acceptable’ In Israel – March 8, 2013 (The National)
A spate of epithet-laced attacks by young Israeli Jews against Arabs indicates anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry is becoming more acceptable in many sectors of Israeli society, according to rights workers.
Auni Banna, the director of the Arab minority rights department at Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), partly attributed the violence to years of “institutionalised” discrimination against Arab citizens, who face restrictions on land ownership and access to housing and education not experienced by Jewish citizens.
Fighting the “Prawer-Begin” Plan on Behalf of Negev Bedouin
Bulldozers Flatten Bedouin Village 49 Times – April 18, 2013 (Al Jazeera)
The village [Al-Araqib] is one of dozens that has never been recognized by the state, and doesn’t feature on any official maps. Its residents are denied access to water, electricity, paved roads, hospitals, schools, and other basic services.
“Home demolitions are taking place on a weekly basis. They are becoming more often and more brutal. Of course, once [Israel] will have a law, it will have the legal basis to even further enhance these policies,” said Rawia Abu Rabia, a lawyer with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).
Liberman: Jews Are Losing The Battle For The Negev – April 18, 2013 (Jerusalem Post)
Yisrael Beytenu leader MK Avigdor Liberman expressed concerns that Jews may be losing the battle for land control in Israel during a tour of the central Arava settlements on Thursday, Israel Radio Reported.
Though Israel has tried to regulate Beduin building projects by offering the Beduins certain areas in which to build, activist groups have called on the government to legalize the current settlements.
According to The Association for Civil Rights in Israel’s website, many Beduins “are forced to continue living in unrecognized villages that are denied basic services and infrastructure, such as electricity and running water.”
Reporting on Poverty and Neglect in East Jerusalem
Much of the environmental education effort in East Jerusalem started four years ago as a part of a plan to clean up Jerusalem’s Kidron Valley, which abuts the city’s most historic sites and separates East and West Jerusalem. It’s also full of trash and raw sewage: 15 to 20 million cubic meters are dumped each year – enough to fill six Olympic swimming pools.
Some analysts say resistance is due to poor infrastructure and environmental movements that lag a few years behind the United Sates and Europe. The left-leaning Association of Civil Rights in Israel reported in 2009 that the Jerusalem municipality provided only 104 trash bins for 15,000 people in Sur Baher and its neighbor, Umm Tuba.
Jerusalem Palestinians Face Neglect, Displacement – April 19, 2013 (Al-Monitor)
Cut off from adjacent Palestinian cities in the occupied West Bank by Israeli army checkpoints and a separation barrier, residents of east Jerusalem say they struggle to protect their livelihoods and presence in the city.
Some 360,000 Palestinians live in mostly crowded, run down, garbage-strewn neighborhoods in Jerusalem. They constitute 38% of the city’s total population.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel says 78% of residents live below the poverty line.
East Jerusalem Economy Struggling – April 16, 2013 (The Media Line)
… The economy in east Jerusalem, which Israel conquered in 1967 and later annexed, is declining. A 2012 report by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) found that the 360,000 Palestinians in east Jerusalem (38 percent of Jerusalem’s total population) have a poverty rate of 78 percent. Some 40 percent of the men are unemployed.
ACRI Petitions Courts on Behalf of Palestinian Residents of the OPT
CPT Walks With Shepherds Threatened In Firing Zone – April 1, 2013 (Mennonite World Review)
About 1,000 Palestinians living in Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills face expulsion from their homes because they live within an Israeli firing zone.
Christian Peacemaker Teams is working to prevent the forced removal by maintaining a presence in the area reminding the Israeli soldiers of a court order preventing any removal.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel filed a petition on behalf of residents on Jan. 16, and the Israeli court granted a temporary order preventing forcible transferring of the families pending further decision.
Over the past 33 years the Civil Administration has allocated less than one percent of state land in the West Bank to Palestinians, compared to 38 percent to settlers, according to the agency’s own documents submitted to the High Court of Justice.
Three years ago the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights asked the Civil Administration, by dint of the Freedom of Information Law, for figures on the extent of state lands in the West Bank. The Civil Administration refused to provide the information and the organizations asked the court to intervene.
ACRI Condemns Violations of West Bank Palestinians’ Individual Rights
Emergency Law Limiting Detainee Rights Extended – April 30, 2013 (Jerusalem Post)
The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee decided, regarding certain security detainees, to permit extending their detention without them being present in court, delaying court oversight and delaying access to a lawyer.
After the committee meeting a representative of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel argued that there were multiple issues with the emergency law… She said [that] democracies should be ready to pay some price to balance security with civil rights.
The Israel Defense Forces’ directives regarding the entry of Palestinian workers to communities beyond the Green Line say that workers shall not be permitted to walk around the settlements. They also say that workers are supposed to be checked with a metal detector if available, and warn that it is strictly forbidden to humiliate the workers during this inspection. The procedures say there is to be one armed guard for every 10 workers.
Attorney Tamar Feldman, director of the human rights department at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, says that such directives are unreasonable, disproportionate and should be annulled: “The security officials are the ones who issue permits to the Palestinian workers in the settlements on the basis of comprehensive security checks that they do. If they’ve decided to issue a permit to a worker, that means they don’t think he presents a security risk, and therefore there is no justification in placing conditions upon and restricting his movements in the area.”
ACRI Presses Gov’t to Stop Searching Tourists’ Emails
Israeli Security Allowed to Seek Check of Tourist’s E-mail – April 25, 2013 (CNN)
Israel’s attorney general said Wednesday that Shin Bet, the country’s internal security force, can search a foreign traveler’s email, but only in exceptional cases in which “relevant suspicious signs” are observed.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel received the information from the Attorney General’s Office after it asked whether Israel’s security forces could demand travelers’ e-mail and social media passwords.
Lila Margalit, an attorney for the Association for Civil Rights, said the practice is a violation of privacy rights.
Israel: Security Officials May Keep Searching Emails of Suspicious Foreigners Entering Country – April 24, 2013 (The Washington Post) (Fox News) (AP)
Israel’s attorney general on Wednesday upheld a practice to allow security personnel to read people’s emails accounts when they arrive at the airport, arguing it prevents militants from entering the country.
The attorney general’s office wrote the letter in response to a request for clarification by ACRI after incidents were reported last year, said attorney Lila Margalit of the organization.
“It was a concern because of the level of invasion inherent in (checking) a personal email account,” Margalit said. “It constitutes a violation of privacy.”
Top Israeli Lawyer Rebuffs Criticism Of Email Checks At Border – April 24, 2013 (Reuters)
Israel’s top legal advisor on Wednesday rebuffed criticism of authorities for asking travelers entering the Jewish state to show border officers their emails, saying the checks affecting only certain foreign nationals were lawful.
Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein’s written legal opinion was given in response to a query by the Association or Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which first questioned the practice last year.
On Wednesday the group called the checks a “drastic invasion of privacy… not befitting a democracy.”
Shin Bet: They’ve Got Mail – April 25, 2013 (The Daily Beast)
Responding to petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein chooses not to interfere with security procedure, stating its ‘performed only in exceptional instances, after other relevant incriminating indications are found.’
Israel Approves Email Checks At The Border – April 24, 2013 (Israel HaYom)
“The threat of using foreign citizens for terrorists purposes is a growing trend,” the Attorney-General’s Office warned, in a missive to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which had petitioned the Justice Ministry to overrule such invasive security measures.
ACRI attorney Lila Margalit said, “Invading a computer or an email account constitutes a grave violation of privacy and dignity.”
Shin Bet Security Service personnel can proceed to access emails of tourists landing at Ben-Gurion Airport, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said Wednesday, choosing not to interfere with the procedure.
ACRI attorney Lila Margalit said that after a person has paid for a flights, made the trip and then learned upon arrival that refusing to open his email bout lead to denial of entry cannot be assumed to be giving consent to such a search of his own free will.
Israeli Airport Security Given Green Light To Search Tourist Emails – April 25, 2013 (RT)
Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein defended the practice in a statement, saying that such searches “are performed only in exceptional instances, after other relevant incriminating indications are found.” He added that travelers were not required to give security officers their password, but instead open the accounts on their own.
But Marc Grey, an attorney for the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), said the situation has little to do with passwords. “Passwords are not the issue, email accounts are about as private as it gets,” he told Reuters.
Israeli Tourists Face Email Inspections – April 24, 2013 (The Guardian)
The attorney-general’s approval of the measure follows a petition lodged by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), based on media reports of individuals being requested to disclose email correspondence during interrogation at Ben Gurion airport.
Lila Margalit, a lawyer for ACRI, said: “‘Consent’, given under threat of deportation, cannot serve as a basis for such a drastic invasion of privacy… Allowing security agents to take such invasive measures at their own discretion and on the basis of such flimsy consent is not befitting of a democracy.”
Israel Airport Security ‘Allowed To Read Tourists’ Email’ – April 24, 2013 (AFP)
Israeli security officials at Ben Gurion airport are legally allowed to demand access to tourists’ email accounts and deny them entry if they refuse, the country’s top legal official said on Wednesday.
“In a response dated April 24, 2013, the attorney general’s office confirmed this practice,” ACRI said, quoting sections of the document which said it was only done in exceptional cases where “relevant suspicious signs” were evident and only done with the tourist’s “consent”.
“Allowing security agents to take such invasive measures at their own discretion and on the basis of such flimsy ‘consent’ is not befitting of a democracy.”
