Adalah to Prime Minister, Attorney General and National Insurance Institute: Refusal to Recognize Shafa'amr Victims as Victims of a Hostile Act is Humiliating and Discriminatory
On 30 August 2005, Adalah sent a letter to the Prime Minister, the Attorney General, and the General Director of the National Insurance Institute (NII) on behalf of the High Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel requesting that the victims of the Shafa'amr terror attack that occurred on 4 August 2005 immediately be recognized as victims of a hostile act. In the attack, 4 Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed and several others wounded when a Jewish Israeli army deserter opened fire aboard a bus in Shafa'amr.
The letter was sent following the publication of media reports that the NII had decided not to recognize the Shafa'amr victims as victims of a hostile act. Although the victims' families applied for compensation from the NII on the basis of their status as victims of a hostile act, they were informed that they did not legally qualify for such compensation. The NII decided that, as an exceptional case, the families would receive financial compensation, but not under the Compensation Law for Victims of Hostile Acts – 1970. Rather, the NII appointed a separate committee to consider the case of these victims.
In the letter, Adalah Attorney Abeer Baker argued that the NII's decision not to recognize the late Hazar Turki, Dina Turki, Nader Hayek and Michel Bahouth as victims of a hostile act contradicts the essence of the Law. The NII's decision effectively constitutes an official statement that the murderous attack committed by Eden Natan Zada is an ordinary criminal act and not a hostile act targeting Palestinian citizens of Israel, the motivation of which was racist, Adalah argued.
Adalah emphasized that the values underlying the above-mentioned Law are the state's recognition of its duty to acknowledge those of its citizens who fall victim to hostile acts, especially those murdered on the grounds of their national identity. In addition to the financial compensation, Adalah noted that a moral dimension to state recognition exists in this matter. The application of the Law is the only means by which the state can demonstrate its opposition to such an attack and accept an attack as a hostile act, Adalah contended.
Adalah stressed in the letter that the NII's refusal to accept the applicability of the Law in the case of the Shafa'amr attack indicates the introduction of a two-track system which discriminates between Jewish and Arab victims of hostile acts. The introduction of such a system would thereby perpetuate the preferential treatment accorded Jewish victims of hostile acts who are afforded the Law's protection, vis-?-vis Palestinian Arab victims of such acts who are excluded from the Law's protection. Adalah argued that the creation of these two tracks is humiliating for Arab victims of hostile acts committed by Jewish citizens of Israel and constitutes discrimination against them.
