Empowering Arab Attorneys to Watchdog Corruption and Litigating to Enhance Proper and Ethical Governance in the Municipalities of the Arab Sector

Adv. Barak Calev, the project's director, lectures in Taibe-7/2007

Project Summary
The poor quality of local government in Israel's Arab Sector has traditionally received little attention from the wider public. Yet for years the Office of the State Ombudsman and the Ministry of the Interior have issued reports detailing rampant mismanagement in Arab municipalities. In addition, the "Or Committee" brought to light a discriminative attitude towards this large portion of Israeli society. This special committee of inquiry, headed by Justice Theodore Or, described a very disturbing picture, showing that for years, the different branches of the Israeli government had neglected the Arab population in Israel and failed to properly address their special needs and difficulties. The committee found a direct link between government's lack of action, and the growing tendency of mistrust among Arab citizens of the Israeli democracy and its official agencies.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel (MQG) is committed to improving government for all of Israel's citizens on both the local and national levels. The Movement's project is specifically designed for two main and interrelated goals:
A. Training Arab jurists, and providing them with tools, for effective legal and civil action against corruption, incompetence and malfeasance in local government.
B. Enhancing public awareness and public discussion among Arab citizens regarding to the need for civil society action to promote sound public administration, accountability and transparency in local authorities, via media coverage of the legal cases handled by the project, and the project's public events (see below).
Local government reflects the image of the state in the eyes of citizens. In order to enhance Israeli Arabs' sentiment of solidarity and partnership, they must be enabled to receive proper service from transparent and accountable local authorities.
By implementing the project, The Movement for Quality Government intends to create a "critical mass" of lawyers and other citizens, who will be able to initiate substantial improvements in the conduct of local government in non-Jewish localities. The Project is comprised of two parts: 1) Lectures and Workshop on public administrative law and civil action, with a focus on practical legal skills; 2) a Legal Clinic and "Hotline", operated both by graduates of the lectures and workshops, and by MQG's professional staff, and Public Events.


Project Description

Detailed Description of the project:

I. Part One - Lectures and Workshop- a Six Meeting Session
The first part of the program consists of 12 different units; most of them consist of two academic hours each. Study units cover various aspects of public administrative law and civil action relevant to local government. Classes will be held in six days of extensive study. The last day will consist of a legal workshop.

 

Adv. Barak Calev, the project's director ,
lectures in Taibe-7/2007

A. Study Units 

 B. Workshop

The goal of the workshop is to simulate practical use of the knowledge acquired in the lectures. The workshop will be held in the form of a "case study". The participants will be given cases based on actual events handled by MQG. They will be asked to assess and analyze each case and prepare a legal strategy (e.g. petition to the relevant agency, petition to the Supreme Court, petition pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, complaint to the State Ombudsman, etc.).


II. Part Two - Legal Clinic and 4 - 8 annual Public Events (parallel to the First Part of the project detailed above )
The purpose of the second part is to enhance public awareness of the need for civil society action, in order to promote sound public administration, accountability and transparency in local authorities.
In order to fulfill this objective, MQG runs a legal clinic and hotline, handling and initiating actual cases of government malfeasance. This part of the program is based on MQG's staff's vast knowledge and experience from over ten years of operating its legal hotline, manned by law students in cooperation with the Hebrew University and three other academic institutions in Israel.
The work on the legal cases is done by legal coordinators (Arab students), guided by and in cooperation with MQG's professional legal staff.
In the future we hope and plan to have volunteers assist in handling the legal cases of the Second Part of the program (including graduates of the first part of the program), but that is subject to recruitment of an additional, Arab lawyer to oversee the legal cases handled by the project and develop MQG's connections with Arab citizens and volunteers.

We also expect that by media coverage of cases in the framework of the second part of the project (the hotline), we will strengthen the Arab public's awareness of cases of corruption in the municipalities and the need to hold its representatives accountable for unethical behavior.

In addition to litigation, and in order to enhance Arab sector public awareness and active civic dialogue with that sector, enrichment lectures and public events will be held -- 4-8 public events are currently planned. The purpose of these events is to share the experience and knowledge accumulated by MQG during the 17 years of intensive civic and legal activity since its establishment, while raising public awareness, in accordance with the objective of fighting corruption and strengthening democratic values, by enlarging MQG's circles of partners and networking, as well as by increasing cooperation with the Arab sector.

 

The Project's Achievements to Date
Succesful Implementation of the First Part of the Project -MQG launched the project in October 2005, holding a session of our training program in the Arab city of Sachnin (in the Galilee).
The second and third sessions of our training program took place in March 2006 (Nazareth, March 9-10, 16-17, 23-24) and January-February 2007 (Nazareth, 6 Fridays from January 12 to February 16). The Fourth session of lectures (July-August 2007) took place in the Arab city of Taibe.

The lecturers are given by the MQG's professional staff and board of directors. The academic director of the training program is Adv. Barak Calev, Director of MQG's Legal Department.

Each session of the program consisted of 12 different units (most of them of two academic hours each). The study units covered the various aspects of public administrative law, and civil action relevant to local government (see details about the study units in the chapter above). Classes were held for a period of six days of extensive study. Fourteen participants graduated the September 2005 session, Thirteen participants graduated the March 2006 session, 30 participants graduated the January-February 2007 session, and 32 participants graduated the January-February 2007 session. As in the first session (September 2005), the participants were actively involved in the classes and contributed to the good study atmosphere.
Fortunately, during 2006 we were able to build an important partnership with the Northern branch of the Israel Bar (headed by Israeli Arab leadership), and the program session was adopted by them into their annual professional legal training programs (the February 2007 session).

The project has received excellent evaluations by both the chairman of the Northern Bar, Adv. Haled Zoabi , and the participants.

Successful Implementation of the second part of the project: As a result of the successful implementation of the program, including the high evaluations by the participants and the professional staff of the Northern Bar, and the growing public interest in it, additional joint activities have begun to be held in the framework of MQG's partnership with the Bar -- a series of four public events in Nazareth, on the topic of legal and civil society tools for promoting good governance and democracy (from October 2007 to March 2008). The first two public events in Nazareth were attended by 50 participants.

A public event held in the city of Taibe in June 2007 (prior to the July 2007 session mentioned above) was attended by 18 participants.

In Addition, 100 Arab students participated in a lecture about the project and the watchdog techniques of MQG. The lecture took place at "Givat Haviva" (in northern Israel); MQG was invited to the annual event for Arab Students arranged by the Arab advocacy organization "Adala". Following to the lecture, the Legal Coordinators (see details below) took part in a "happening" that created a great opportunity to introduce the project, and its agenda for the future generation of Arab lawyers in Israel.