{"id":4605,"date":"2012-06-01T11:51:43","date_gmt":"2012-06-01T09:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/?p=4605"},"modified":"2012-06-10T12:34:14","modified_gmt":"2012-06-10T10:34:14","slug":"acri-in-news-may-15-31-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/2012\/06\/01\/acri-in-news-may-15-31-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"ACRI in the News: May 15 \u2013 May 31 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

ACRI Protects the Right to Demonstrate<\/span><\/strong>
\n 
\nIsrael protesters stumble across police bureaucracy<\/a> \u2013 May 16, 2012 (Haaretz)<\/strong>
\nThe 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.
\n 
\nLast week ACRI attorney Nira Shalev<\/strong> 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.
\n 
\nJ\u2019lem police deny social protestors Zion Square<\/a> \u2013 May 30, 2012 (Jerusalem Post)<\/strong>
\nJerusalem police will no longer allow demonstrations in downtown Zion Square \u2013 the central home of protests in the capital for decades \u2013 because they would interrupt the service of the light rail, police said on Wednesday.
\n 
\n[\u2026] 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. \u201cThis 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,\u201d said ACRI attorney Sharona Eliahu-Chai<\/strong> in a statement released by her office.
\n 
\nAccusation: Jlem Police Preventing Protests<\/a> \u2013 May 29, 2012 (Arutz Sheva)<\/strong>
\nThe Association for Civil Rights in Israel has threatened to file suit if police do not authorize a protest soon.The police policy \u201cdoes 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,\u201d the group argued.
\n 
\nJerusalem Day Report \u2013 Poverty in East Jerusalem<\/span><\/strong>
\n 
\nReport: 78% of East Jerusalem Palestinians live in poverty<\/a> \u2013 May 20, 2012 (Haaretz)<\/strong>
\nAccording 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.
\n 
\nThe 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.”
\n 
\nACRI: 78% of east Jerusalem in poverty<\/a> \u2013 May 24, 2012 (Jerusalem Post)<\/strong>
\nPoverty 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.
\n 
\nThe lies of Jerusalem<\/a> \u2013 May 21, 2012 (Haaretz)<\/strong>
\nJerusalem 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.
\n 
\n[\u2026] 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.
\n 
\nDecades after ‘unification’, Jerusalem is divided<\/a> \u2013 May 19, 2012 (France24)<\/strong>
\nLife 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,<\/strong> where vast tracts are set aside for national parks and settlements.
\n 
\nAnd 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.
\n 
\nRacism in Israeli Airports<\/span><\/strong>
\n 
\nAirport transportation director: No Arab cabbies allowed<\/a> \u2013 May 23, 2012 (Times of Israel)<\/strong>
\nThe 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).
\n 
\n[\u2026] ACRI has demanded that Airport Authority director Yaakov Ganot act immediately to cancel the directive<\/strong> by Ben Gurion transportation director Shuki Shemer, since it is in violation of Israel\u2019s Equality of Opportunity in Employment Law.
\n 
\n[\u2026] In her letter, ACRI\u2019s attorney Tal Hassin<\/strong> 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.
\n 
\nState given 6 months to answer petition on airport security bias<\/a> \u2013 May 22, 2012 (Ynet)<\/strong>
\nThe 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.
\n 
\n[\u2026] 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.
\n 
\nHigh Court Petition against “Big Brother Law”<\/span><\/strong>
\n 
\nBill aims to enable agencies to track citizens’ every move<\/a> \u2013 May 17, 2012 (Ynet)<\/strong>
\nThe 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.
\n 
\n[\u2026] Attorney Avner Pinchuk of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel<\/strong> said that the bill is \u201cpuzzling and disconcerting.” ACRI and the Bar Association have petitioned the High Court of Justice against the original law.
\n 
\nHigh Court upholds legality of \u2018Big Brother\u2019 legislation<\/a> \u2013 May 29, 2012 (Haaretz)<\/strong>
\nThe 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 [\u2026] The ruling came in response to separate petitions submitted in 2008 by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Israel Bar Association.
\n 
\nHigh Court rejects petitions against \u2018big brother\u2019 law<\/a> \u2013 May 28, 2012 (Ynet)<\/strong>
\nThe petitioners \u2013 the Israel Bar Association and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel \u2013 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.
\n 
\nIntensifying Incitement against Asylum Seekers<\/span><\/strong>
\n 
\nLikud MK warns \u2018south Tel Aviv under siege\u2019<\/a> \u2013 May 29, 2012 (Jerusalem Post)<\/strong>
\nA 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. [\u2026] [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.
\n 
\nAs migrant crisis deepens, PM promises \u2018responsible solution,\u2019 slams racist tone of protests<\/a> \u2013 May 24, 2012 (Times of Israel)<\/strong>
\nAssociation for Civil Rights in Israel lawyer Oded Feller<\/strong> said the government should heed the police\u2019s recommendation that the African migrants be allowed to work. Such a move would\u00a0reduce their need to steal for food, he said.
\n 
\nBill to Prohibit Use of Nazi Symbols<\/span><\/strong>
\n 
\nSurvivors back criminalizing Nazi symbols<\/a> \u2013 May 30, 2012 (Jerusalem Post)<\/strong>
\nWhile civil rights groups argued the bill would harm freedom of expression, Holocaust survivors said that although free speech was important, there should be limits.
\n 
\n[\u2026] Attorney Lila Margalit of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)<\/strong><\/strong> 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.
\n 
\nBanning Nazi Symbols a Blow to Free Speech?<\/a> \u2013 May 30, 2012 (Arutz Sheva)<\/strong>
\nA 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\u2019s Constitution Committee to nix the proposed ban.
\n 
\nNighttime Prison Raid <\/span><\/strong>
\n 
\nScant Response to Video of a Violent Israeli Prison Night Search<\/a> \u2013 May 17, 2012 (Forward)<\/strong>
\nLast February, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel,<\/strong> 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.
\n 
\nDeportation of South Sudanese Asylum Seekers<\/span><\/strong>
\n 
\nDeportation of South Sudanese is legal, ministry says<\/a> \u2013 May 15, 2012 (Times of Israel)<\/strong>
\n“If deported, asylum seekers may be exposed to grave dangers \u2014 from internecine fighting, famine, and lack of basic services like health care and water,\u201d 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. \u201cOther countries have taken note of these conditions \u2014 the United States has extended collective protection for South Sudanese refugees until May 2013.\u201d
\n 
\nBiometric ID Cards<\/span><\/strong>
\n 
\nGovernment green lights \u2018smart\u2019 ID cards program<\/a> \u2013 May 16, 2012 (Jerusalem Post)<\/strong>
\nThe Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approved changes to the Population Registry regulations on Wednesday \u2013 including regarding the issuance of planned new \u201csmart\u201d electronic ID cards.
\n 
\n[\u2026] Opponents of the biometric ID card plans, including attorney Avner Pinchuk from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel,<\/strong> have warned of \u201cirreversible damage\u201d should Israelis\u2019 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.
\n 
\nAmerican Jews Respond to Anti-Democratic Initiatives in Israel<\/span><\/strong>
\n 
\nWhen Israel lacks leadership, we should speak up<\/a> \u2013 May 21, 2012 (JTA)<\/strong>
\nIsrael\u2019s 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.\u00a0 Don\u2019t take my word for it. Visit the website of the Israeli Democracy Institute or the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
\n 
\nPetition against the “Nakba Law”<\/span><\/strong>
\n 
\nErasing the Nakba<\/a> \u2013 May 17, 2012 (Al-Jazeera)<\/strong>
\nThe 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”.
\n 
\nOn January 5, 2012, the Supreme Court published its ruling, rejecting the appeal, and upholding the Nakba Law. [\u2026] As Dan Yakir from the Association for Civil Rights<\/strong> 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.
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ACRI Protects the Right to Demonstrate   Israel protesters stumble across police bureaucracy \u2013 May 16, 2012 (Haaretz) The Hadera … Read more…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,64,37,63,29,1,32,3,77,33,58,74,27,50],"tags":[119],"class_list":["post-4605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-jerusalem","category-anti-democratic-legislation","category-arab-citizens-of-israel","category-arab-minority-rights","category-citizenship-and-residency","category-democracy-and-civil-liberties","category-due-process","category-freedom-of-expression","category-police-and-security-guards","category-racism-and-discrimination","category-refugees-and-asylum-seekers","category-right-to-education","category-the-right-to-equality","category-the-right-to-privacy","tag-acri-in-the-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4605"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4613,"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4605\/revisions\/4613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.acri.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}