Saturday, January 30: International Day for Arab Rights in Israel

Hadash head Muhammad Barakeh, chairman of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab citizens of Israel, held a press conference at the Sokolov Journalists House in Tel Aviv on Sunday, January 24, and announced that this coming Saturday, January 30, has been declared International Day for Arab Rights in Israel, an event which will be marked in 30 countries.

Mohammad Barakeh, Chairman of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab citizens of Israel, at a press conference at the Sokolov Journalists House in Tel Aviv, January 24, 2016

Mohammad Barakeh, Chairman of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, at a press conference at the Sokolov Journalists House in Tel Aviv, January 24, 2016 (Photo: Al Ittihad)

According to Al Ittihad Communist newspaper, Barakeh told reporters: “We are continuing and broadening the international struggle against racist discrimination.” During the press conference, former MK Barakeh also criticized the coalition’s proposed “NGO transparency law,” the government’s banning of the Northern Islamic Movement, and recent arrests of Israeli and Palestinian human rights activists.

Joint List MK Dr. Yousef Jabareen (Hadash), told The Jerusalem Post that the conferences to be held around the world on January 30 will focus on “numerous human rights violations that successive Israeli governments have regularly undertaken against its Arab-Palestinian citizens.” Israeli policies have rendered Palestinians in Israel as second-class citizens in all social, economic and political aspects of society, in clear violation of the standards of international law and the human rights treaties to which Israel is a signatory.”

Jabareen will be one of four speakers in a panel discussion organized by Middle East Monitor to be held London on Saturday. The other speakers will be Dr. Durgham Saif, professor at Al-Quds University, Malia Bouattia, the Black Students’ Officer from the National Union of Students, and journalist Ben White. “Palestinian citizens are ill-represented, in the public sphere and in decision making circles, and Arab municipalities are substantially under-funded relative to Jewish towns and as such their inhabitants fail to have the same quality of schooling, housing and economic welfare as Jewish Israelis,” said Jabareen.

Related:

Middle East Monitor: Targeting dissent: Israel’s crackdown on Arab citizens