Press Releases
BADIL Occasional Bulletins aim to provide a brief overview of issues related to the ongoing forcible displacement of the Palestinian people.
Israel identifies itself as a “Democratic and Jewish State” by decree. Publicly it touts itself as ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’. However, Israel’s democratic credentials are severely undermined by its discriminatory treatment of its indigenous non-Jewish Palestinian citizens who constitute roughly 20% of the population. While human rights treaty-making bodies have recognized that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory not only contravenes humanitarian law but also human rights law as well, recent developments have made the connection between the discrimination faced by Palestinian citizens of Israel (so called Israeli- Arabs) and their Palestinian counterparts in the oPt more apparent.
This bulletin focuses solely upon Israeli laws and policies which govern the state of Israel, and as such does not examine military orders and other policies that are applied in the oPt. It presents the information in summary form via tables and should be referenced as an abridged guide of Israel’s discriminatory legal system. The full version of the report will be published within the fourth quarter of this year.