The World Justice Project has announced that NIF grantee, Adalah – the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, is one of six winners of the World Justice Challenge 2021: Advancing the Rule of Law in a Time of Crisis competition. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s World Justice Challenge sought to identify and promote good practices and high-impact projects that protect the rule of law in a time of crisis.

Selected from a pool of 30 finalists (and 425 total submissions from 114 countries), each winning project will be awarded $20,000 for their work to protect and advance the rule of law in the face of challenges accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

To combat the discrimination faced by Israel’s Arab minority, Adalah’s Emergency COVID-19 Project takes legal action before Israeli courts and state authorities to obtain remedies. From the outset of the COVID-19 crisis in Israel, Israel’s government neglected the needs of Arab citizens in areas like access to health services, remote learning, public information, economic support, and the right to privacy. Adalah conducted over 40 lawsuits, including 15 petitions to the Supreme Court, and achieved life-saving legal outcomes, including the provision of COVID-19 testing, more equitable allocation of public funds for Arab towns, and protections for civil liberties threatened by government measures justified by the response to the public health crisis.

Jewish-Arab partnership is critical to Israel’s moral fabric, to its democratic future, and any hope of Israel fulfilling its founding vision — one based on equality for all Israelis and Palestinians. That has been a focus of our work for decades. But this moment of crisis demands more of us.
Learn more about our Bridge the Divide campaign »