The Arab Association for Human Rights and Can, Therefore, in No Way Be Taken to Reflect the Official Opinion of the European Union and ICCO
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On the Margins Annual Review of Human Rights Violations of the Arab Palestinian Minority in Israel 2006 اﻟﻤﺆﺳﺴﺔ اﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ ﻟﺤﻘﻮق اﻹﻧﺴﺎن האגודה הערבית לזכויות האדם Arab Association for Human Rights 1 Written by Tarek Ibrahim, Adv. Translated (from Hebrew) by Shaul Vardi Published in June 2007 Cover Photo: Home Demolition in the Naqab, 2006. This report has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union and ICCO. The views expressed in this report are those of the Arab Association for Human Rights and can, therefore, in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union and ICCO. The Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA) was founded in 1988 by a group of lawyers and community activists to promote and protect the civil and political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel from an international human-rights perspective. In 2003, the HRA expanded its activities to include a human-rights monitoring program, whose methodology relies on field research and interviews and legal analysis of the domestic and international human-rights standards. The idea of establishing a Research and Reporting program was first developed by the HRA in the wake of the events of October 2000, when 13 Palestinian Arabs (twelve citizens of Israel and one from the Occupied Palestinian Territories) were killed by state police forces. Since that time, a steady trickle of serious and often physical human-rights abuses against minority citizens means that the need for human-rights documentation and reporting of these abuses is more vital than ever. 2 Index Introduction: From the Margins to the Extreme Margins ..........7 Chapter One: Inferior Citizenship Rights ................................. 11 A) Introduction .................................................................................11 B) The Nationality and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Provision), 5763-2003................................................................................................14 Implementation of the Law ................................................15 The Supreme Court Decision .............................................17 Criticism by the Arab Association for Human Rights........18 Amendment of the Temporary Provision...........................19 Amendment No. 19 to the Entry into Israel Law ...............21 C) Granting Permanent Status to Foreign Children ................................22 Chapter Two: Political Persecution ................................................23 A) Introduction........................................................................................23 B) Prevention of Foreign Travel and Visits to Arab Countries...............30 C) Position of the Arab Association for Human Rights..........................38 Chapter Three: Discrimination in the Confiscation and Allocation of Land and in Planning Policy ................................ 40 A) Introduction........................................................................................40 B) Outline Plans ......................................................................................41 C) Land Confiscation ..............................................................................45 D) Housing ..............................................................................................53 E) House Demolitions .............................................................................55 F) Mixed Cities........................................................................................61 Chapter Four: The Arab Citizens in the Naqab............................63 A) Introduction........................................................................................63 B) The Judaization of the Naqab.............................................................64 3 C) Ignoring the Arab Citizens in the Naqab............................................66 D) Eviction and Usurping .......................................................................66 E) House Demolitions .............................................................................68 F) Destruction of Crops...........................................................................71 G) Individual Jewish Settlements............................................................73 H) The Supply of Water to the Unrecognized Villages ..........................75 I) Health Services....................................................................................77 J) Grazing Grounds .................................................................................77 K) Army Ammunition Left in Grazing Areas.........................................79 Chapter Five: The War against Lebanon and the Arab Citizens...............................................................................................81 A) Introduction........................................................................................81 B) Lack of Public Bomb Shelters............................................................82 C) Placement of Missile Batteries and Tanks adjacent to the Arab Villages....................................................................................................84 D) Failure to Install Sirens and Issue Instructions ..................................84 E) Compensation and Rehabilitation Budgets for the North of Israel ....86 F) The Educational Rehabilitation Plan for the North ............................89 G) Failure to Use the Arabic Language ..................................................90 Chapter Six: Racism against the Arab Citizens of Israel ........... 92 A) Introduction .................................................................................92 B) Member of Knesset Avigdor Lieberman............................................93 C) Racism on the Part of Jewish Members of Knesset and Ministers ....97 D) Police Racism ..............................................................................100 E) Racism on the Part of Official and Semi-Official Bodies ..................101 F) Racism in the Provision of Services ...............................................104 G) Racism during the Elections to the Seventeenth Knesset.................107 H) Racist Laws and Proposed Laws....................................................109 I) Advocacy of Transfer.....................................................................110 J) Racism on the Part of Israeli Citizens..............................................112 4 Chapter Seven: Violence against Arab Citizens......................... 116 A) Police Violence against Arab Citizens ......................................116 Introduction ........................................................................116 The Killing of Arab Citizens by the Police ........................117 Police Violence toward Arab Citizens ...............................119 Prosecution of Policemen for Using Violence against Arab Citizens......................................................................124 B) Violence by Jewish Citizens against Arab Citizens ..................126 Chapter Eight: Desecration of Holy Sites .................................. 133 Appendix: List of House Demolitions and Delivery of Demolition Notices ................................................................... 141 5 6 Introduction From the Margins to the Extreme Margins The Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA) has been publishing annual reports for the last three years, documenting some of the violations of human rights of Palestinian Arab citizens in Israel and tracking the official policy of Israel and its institutions throughout the year towards the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel. Our third annual report hereby presented portrays a typical picture of racial discrimination, which has become entrenched in official and legal policy, and has become an extremely dangerous practice and the legal basis that establishes relations between the state and its Jewish majority towards the Palestinian Arab minority. With the racist discourse moving from the margins to the center, and from the exception to the norm, we are seeing an escalation of the "demographic" discourse, which no longer remains within the confines of the marginal racist political parties, but has become a law, legitimized by most of the Jewish political parties and approved of by them. Such was the case of the amendments to the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (temporary order) 5763-2003, which constitutes a blatant interference in a person's basic right to start a family and choose a partner and have children in their homeland. Likewise, last year, the state and its institutions continued to use "security" as an excuse to give legitimacy to all of the prohibitions and severe violations of human rights, from political persecution, through uprooting families and separating parents from their children to political arrests and the prohibition against visits to Arab and other countries. In 2006 we also witnessed the continued policy of land appropriation and choking the Arab villages and cities and preventing their development, along with an increase in the demolition of Arab houses in the Galilee, the Triangle, the Nakab (Negev) and in the mixed cities. Meanwhile, the state and its planning institutions prepared all of the plans and designs to complete the process of Judaization, whose purpose is to change the demographic makeup by a plan to "develop the Negev and Galilee." All of the government ministries treat this plan as a national