What Recognition of Israel as a Jewish State Means to its Non-Jewish Citizens

A discussion with Hassan Jabareen, Founder & General Director of Adalah: the Legal Center for Minority Rights in Israel.

Hassan Jabareen is the founder of Adalah. He has extensive experience in litigating landmark cases before the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of Palestinians in Israel and in the OPT. Major cases include representing Arab political parties and leaders in elections disqualification cases and in political, criminal cases; and challenging the Citizenship Law which prohibits family unification between Palestinians from the OPT and Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the no-compensation law which banned Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza from obtaining damages from Israeli security forces. Further he led the legal team in the representation of the 13 bereaved families of the October 2000 killings and Arab political leaders before the Or Commission of Inquiry. He also appeared numerous times before UN human rights bodies. He received the "Peter Cicchino Award" for excellency in public interest lawyering from the American University law school in Washington DC and he was chosen in 2005 as a "Yale World Fellow". Under his leadership, Adalah received UN ECOSOC status, the Civil Rights Award of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), and the award for NGO excellency and good governance from the Welfare Association. He has been teaching in Israeli law schools since 1998 as an Adjunct Lecturer on the legal status of Palestinian citizens of Israel. He has also published academic articles on cause-lawyering and the constitutional status of the Palestinians.