Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
Headquarters in Haifa
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| Founded | 1996 |
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| Type |
Non-profit NGO |
| Focus | Human rights, Arab citizens of Israel, Minority rights, Indigenous rights, Civil and political rights, Economic, social and cultural rights, Prisoners' rights, Land and planning rights " |
| Location |
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Area served
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Israel and the Occupied Territories, (see also: Occupied Palestinian Territories) |
| Method | Impact litigation, legal consultation, international advocacy, education, training, publication, media outreach " |
| Mission | "To promote and defend the rights of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, 1.2 million people, or 20% of the population, as well as Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)." |
| Website | http://www.adalah.org/eng |
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Hebrew: עדאלה - המרכז המשפטי לזכויות המיעוט הערבי בישראל, Arabic: عدالة - المركز القانوني لحماية حقوق الأقلية العربية في اسرائيل) is a human rights organization and legal center.
Adalah's goals are "achieving individual and collective rights of the Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel" and protecting "the human rights of Palestinians living under occupation, based on international humanitarian law and international human rights law".
The organization was founded in November 1996; it is non-partisan and not-for-profit. Adalah's founder and General Director is lawyer Hassan Jabareen. Adalah means Justice in the Arabic language.
Adalah attempts to influence Israeli public discourse through media outreach and campaigning. Adalah regularly participates in Israeli and international academic conferences.
Historian Ilan Pappe describes Adalah’s philosophy as "that the personal autonomy of the individual was a right that had to be fiercely protected, and that this right included also the collective rights of the group to which the individual belonged."
Many of Adalah's cases involve first-time legal challenges and affect Arab citizens as a collective group. Adalah’s legal advocacy focuses on appealing to the Israeli Supreme Court. Between 1996-2000, it brought over twenty cases before the court dealing with equality for Arab citizens, including language rights cases, budgets of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, health and education in the unrecognized Arab Bedouin villages in Israel.
Adalah’s legal department is divided into three units: Land and Planning; Economic, Social, and Cultural; and Civil and Political (including Criminal Justice and the Occupied Palestinian Territory).
Adalah is challenging discriminatory land and planning laws and policies in a wide range of fields. Its litigation efforts include petitioning the courts and planning committees against forced evictions and home demolitions in the Naqab; challenging the policies of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) for making land available only to Jews; challenging the state's refusal to recognize or provide services to Arab villages and neighborhoods; objecting to planning decisions which prioritize Jewish settlements over Arab towns; and seeking to overturn policies which discriminate against Arabs in the provision of mortgages and housing assistance.
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