Our Friend,
This past year has thrown many obstacles in the way of our collective strive for human rights. 2012 saw the ACAA protocol passed by the European Parliament and the Haifa District Court’s rejection of the Rachel Corrie’s family’s appeals. These two developments set dangerous precedents domestically and abroad that will threaten future justice-protection mechanisms. In addition, a spate of discriminatory legislation was passed this past year; the Prawer Plan threatens the livelihoods of Arab Bedouin in the Naqab, the Family Unification Law divides Palestinian families, the Anti-Boycott Law violates freedom of speech, and the Naqba Law revokes the Palestinian minority’s right to commemorate a national tragedy.
Each law like these that is passed further restricts the human rights of Palestinians in Israel in favor of consecrating the superiority of the Jewish majority. The upcoming elections on January 22 are projected to an extremely right-wing government to power. Most serious of all, the outbreak of violence in Gaza in November portends troubling attitudes from Israeli politicians and marks the most recent in the long line of Israeli violations of Palestinians’ human rights.
The HRA is working as hard as ever to protect and promote the rights of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel. We published two reports on issues of discrimination, one about home demolitions and the other focusing on the personal tragedies caused by the discriminatory family unification law. Our human rights forums and youth outreach programs reached over 10,000 Palestinians living in Israel. We also started a Twitter feed and redesigned our Intern Blog to make is easier for us to connect with supporters from all over the world.
This year we will be starting long-term projects with many esteemed partners in Israel and the Occupied Territories. In 2013 we project our programs will reach record numbers of participants. We hope to further expand our social media presence and to find even more ways to spread the word about human rights abuses in Israel. Our efforts can only be successful with the participation and support of people like you.
We are happy to announce that today it is easier than ever to support our work. All you have to do is go to the Donate Today! section on our website and click the Paypal button. You can start the New Year off right by supporting our work and joining our effort to promote human rights in Israel.
“You who stand in the doorway, come in,
Drink Arabic coffee with us
And you will sense that you are men like us
You who stand in the doorways of houses
Come out of our morning times,
We shall feel reassured to be
Men like you!”
-Mahmoud Darwish, excerpt from Under Siege
Mohammad Zeidan
General Director
Arab Association for Human Rights