The Israeli High Court of Justice narrowly upheld a law Wednesday which allows communities to screen and reject new potential inhabitants, leaving a few human rights organizations questioning the decision.
Originally passed in March 2011, the law allows communities to establish "admission committees to screen potential new members based on criteria laid down in the community's bylaws" reported Haaretz, adding that similar neighborhood committees have indeed been "standard practice" for decades but without official legal basis.
The Wednesday decision to uphold the law was made after of two civil rights groups, Adalah and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, filed with the courts requesting the law be nullified.
"The High Court has approved one of the most racist laws of the past several years," commented Adalah. "It was legislated by a majority of the Knesset with the declared intent, primarily, of keeping Arab citizens out of these communities."
Adalah said the law could also permit 434 small communities to deny homosexuals, the disabled or anyone who differs from the social norm.
Justices involved in the 5-4 decision said it's not yet clear how the law will be applied in practice, therefore petitions filed in objection may be premature.
Discrimination is explicitly prohibited under the law, reported Haaretz, however, the law does permit admission committees to reject candidates for vague reasons such as being "unsustainable to the community's social life or its social-cultural fabric." Applicants may also be required to provide "a great deal of personal information."
The Adalah attorney who drafted the petition, Suhad Bishara, said, "This [ruling] reflects the continued deterioration in constitutional protections of the legal status of Israel's Arab citizens. In the wake of this decision, hundreds of Israeli communities - 434 communities - will be legally run, with the approval of the High Court, on the basis of apartheid in housing."
