A High Court of Justice petition was filed by nine NGOs against the law that allows towns to screen applicants for suitability with their community, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said on Thursday, following the passing of the July amendment that expanded the law.
The amendment increased the scope of the law to towns with 400 families to 700. Adalah said that the amendment applied the law to 41% of all localities, and with regional councils, covered almost 80% of state territory.
The NGOs argued that the committees serve a purpose of racial segregation. The law allows community towns such as Moshavim and Kibbutzim to check the suitability of potential residents to ensure that they fit into the social fabric and structure, but while the original 2011 law disallowed rejection based on "race, religion, gender, nationality, disability, class, age, parentage, sexual orientation, country of origin, views or party political affiliation," human rights organizations have claimed that in practice the committees exclude Arabs and Palestinians.
"The Knesset and the government persist in entrenching a discriminatory land policy that runs counter to fundamental principles of international law," Adalah legal director Dr. Suhad Bishara argued in a Thursday statement. "The architects of this law do not conceal their aim to expand and deepen racial segregation and promote Jewish supremacy. Under this law, admission committees wield authority, allowing a privileged few to determine access to land resources, all in the pursuit of institutionalized discrimination based on nationality. This violates the rights of various marginalized populations, including Palestinian citizens.”