At the end of July the Knesset will go on summer recess. ACRI will send updates on any relevant discussions that take place during the Knesset offseason. Otherwise, the Knesset Roundup will resume when the winter session commences on 30 October 2016.
Discrimination in planning in the Negev
Review of the decision to establish new communities in the Negev
Internal Affairs and Environment Committee | 11/07/16
ACRI’s position (together with Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights): The Arab Bedouin citizens in the Negev have been long subjected to discrimination regarding the allocation of land; planning and housing; the lack of recognition of their villages and the denial of essential services to the residents who live there; and the failure to recognize their traditional land system. This reality of life is intolerable and unacceptable.
This specific discussion related to the government’s intention to establish many new communities in the Negev. Various stakeholders in the Negev are opposed to the plan: including mayors and residents of local communities who believe in investing in existing communities, which desperately need more residents and financial investment, instead of building new towns which may cause current residents to move. Environmental organizations are opposing the establishment of new towns to avoid harming uninhabited areas and natural resources. The Arab Bedouin residents of the Negev continue to ask for recognition and development of their communities, and that no new community be built on the areas where they are currently living.
The confidentiality of intelligence material
The Constitution, Law and Justice Committee | 18/07/16 | Preparation for second and third readings
ACRI’s position: The Committee approved the bill in question for second and third readings. The bill states that the default position is that all intelligence material will be confidential and will not be available for inspection by the defendant, even if it is relevant to the proceedings, without the need to examine in detail whether confidentiality is indeed required to prevent harm to the public interest.
The bill fundamentally changes the checks and balances that exist today in order to regulate the power to classify investigative material as confidential, and overrides firm court rulings on this issue. The bill also completely eliminates some of the control mechanisms that exist to ensure the proportionality of the harm inherent in concealing information.
ACRI opposes the bill and believes that it does not meet the test of constitutionality. The bill would severely and disproportionately harm basic human rights, especially the right of a defendant to due process in criminal proceedings, and will increases the risk of a miscarriage of justice and false convictions.
Discrimination against Arab students at teachers colleges
Education, Culture and Sports Committee | 18/07/16 | Discussion
ACRI’s position: ACRI demands that the Minister of Education take immediate action to cancel the new budgeting system for students at teachers colleges starting with the next school year, which differentiates between students based on their nationality and sets a significantly lower budget for Arab students at the same colleges. The budgeting method in question discriminates against Arab students at teachers colleges and seriously violates their rights, particularly the right to higher education and employment, the right to equality and the right to dignity. ACRI wrote a letter to the Education Minister (available in Hebrew here).
Life-extending drugs
Labor, Welfare and Health Committee | 19/07/16 | Discussion
ACRI’s position (together with Physicians for Human Rights and the Adva Center): ACRI fully sympathizes with concerns regarding the health of Israeli citizens and the need to ensure that the best medical treatment is available to the public. However, ACRI is strongly opposed to the proposal to make life-saving drugs subject to supplementary insurance policies for a long list of reasons – first and foremost because this would violate the right to equality, since 20% of the population does not have supplementary insurance.
Instead ACRI asked the Committee to: promote automatic and regular updates to the basket of public health services, whereby the budget for drugs and new technologies will increase automatically by 2% every year; integrate supplementary health insurance into public services while making the tax premiums more progressive; and supervise and restrict commercial insurance, also in relation to pharmaceuticals. These changes would stop the continual erosion of the public health basket and restore the equality of the public health system. ACRI asks members of Knesset not to settle for an interim solution, which would negatively affect a large sector of the population, but instead to fight for a solution that would benefit us all. (New position paper available in Hebrew here.)
