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Campaign to Save Mamilla Jerusalem Cemetery The Mamilla (Ma’man Allah) Cemetery has been a Muslim burial ground since the 7th Century, when companions of the Prophet Muhammad were reportedly buried there. Before that, it was the site of a Byzantine church and cemetery. It is the burial ground of fallen soldiers and officials of the Muslim ruler Salah ul-Din from the 12th Century, as well as generations of important Jerusalem families and notables. A significant portion of the cemetery is being destroyed and hundreds of human remains are being desecrated so that Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) of Los Angeles CA can build a “Center for Human Dignity - Museum of Tolerance” on this sacred Muslim site. Human rights organizations and individuals whose human rights have been violated are petitioning against the destruction and desecration of the cemetery by the government of Israel in conjunction with the SWC.

10/2/2010

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October Now The Events in Al-Buqei`a: Violence and Discrimination in Law Enforcement in Israel Between the end of October and the beginning of November, a violent confrontation occurred in the Arab village of Al-Buqei`a in northern Israel between the residents and the Israel Police. During the course of the incident, the police fired live ammunition. A total of some 40 people were injured, including both policemen and residents, and two of the injured – a citizen shot in the chest with live ammunition and a policeman – were left in a serious condition. These events became known as the events of October 2007, an allusion to the events of October 2000. Once again, the events raise important arguments regarding the attitude of the police toward the Arab citizens of Israel. These arguments have been raised in the past by the Arab population, but they are strengthened by the events in Al-Buqei`a. We shall examine some of the key arguments in the following sections.

22/11/2007

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Attack on the Basilica Of the Annunciation Public condemnation and official condonation This Report Deals with the attack on the Basilica Of the Annunciation by a Jewish couple, on March 3, 2006. The HRA considers the church attack as one violation in a series of violations against Christian and Muslim holy places and is a product of the minority's delegitimisation by the State. The HRA thinks that the State holds responsibility for the attack in that they helped create an atmosphere of racism that legitimised attacks on the minority and their holy places. The attackers may claim they committed the act for personal reasons, but that does not absolve the State of its responsibility.

20/3/2006

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Nazareth:A Glimpse at the Arab Economic Crisis For the first time since its inception 8 years ago, the crisis of the Palestinian Arab economy in Israel commanded attention at the elite Caesarea Conference from 26-27 June 2000. By convening the conference in Nazareth, the largest Palestinian town within Israel, the Israel Democracy Institute futilely hoped to disguise the country's lack of real interest towards the Arab sector.

20/7/2000

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Home Demolition: The Facts Behind "Illegal Housing" Two weeks ago, Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein called for the police to implement long-standing orders to destroy thousands of illegally built homes. “I fear that… a segment of the population avoids the law in general and the laws of planning and construction in particular," he stated.

21/6/2000

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Present Absentees: Internal Refugees in Israel Old men led the way, walking slowly toward home. Behind them streamed nearly 1,000 others, marching to Umm al-Zeinat, their village in the Karmel mountains near Haifa. In 1948, Israeli troops evicted all the villagers, destroyed their homes, and expropriated their land for the state. Nearly 1,500 refugees fled to nearby areas that took them in, living in the same country, but unable to return to the land they owned. On May 10, these “internal refugees” attempted to call attention to their plight by peacefully marching back to their homes. Later that afternoon 5,000 Palestinians from Kaboul also returned to their home village in the Galilee. The marchers walked quietly, carrying signs naming more than 400 villages destroyed during the war and in the years since. When they arrived, they listened to speakers representing all sectors of the Palestinian community within Israel, including Arab MKs. In the face of violent protests in the territories, Jewish newspapers barely mentioned the quiet protest of these internal refugees.

25/5/2000

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Commemoration of Land Day On March 30th, 1976, six Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel were killed during demonstrations in Sakhnin against land expropriation in the Galilee. Ever since, March 30th has been commemorated in the Palestinian Arab community as Land Day, a day of remembrance and of protest against continued government confiscation of Palestinian Arab lands within Israel. This past Thursday marked the 24th Land Day since 1976.

5/4/2000

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Arab Family, Jewish Settlement: The Katzir (Qadan) Case On Wednesday, March 8, the High Court of Justice ruled that an Arab family could move into Katzir, a town built by the Jewish Agency as a Jewish cooperative settlement. With the ruling, the Court declared that the State of Israel could not discriminate between Jews and Arabs in most issues of land allocation. According to Chief Justice Aaron Barak: "Equal rights for all people in Israel, whatever their religion and nationality, derives from the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic State."

24/3/2000

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Al-Salem Elementary School: Crisis Conditions in the Bedouin Town of Rahat On Sunday, March 5th, teachers and staff at Al-Salem Elementary School in Rahat, a government township for Bedouin, staged a strike to protest unsafe conditions at the school. The physical condition of the building is so poor that a safety inspector in earlier this year declared that "human beings must be removed from there." Yet so far, neither the Municipality nor the Ministry of Education has found the funds to carry out the necessary emergency repairs.

9/3/2000

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Umm al Fahm: Land Expropriation and Police Brutality On 26th January 2000, Elyakim Rubinstein, Israel’s Attorney General, announced that his office would not pursue complaints of police brutality in connection with the Umm al Fahm land confiscation demonstrations of September 1998, where over 400 local residents were injured. Instead, the Attorney General endorsed an internal police investigation clearing the force of any wrong-doing. According to Shlomo Cohen, chair of the Israel Bar Association, in a letter to Rubinstein: "The results of this 'investigation,' and even more your acceptance of them, are a harsh blow to the rule of law, equality in the eyes of the law, and law enforcement in Israel."

25/2/2000