State given another year to scrap 'discriminatory' education budget system

The High Court gave the state on Sunday another year to scrap an education budget allocation system it had earlier ordered to be replaced for being discriminatory to Israeli Arabs.

But the justices, headed by Service Supreme Court president Dorit Beinisch, blasted the state's lack of adherence to the court's 2006 decision as "taking liberties."

In February 2006, the court ruled that the use of "national priority areas" in determining education budgets discriminated against the country's Arab sector. It ordered the state to replace the system within a year.

The court's decision came in response to a petition submitted by Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.

At the end of the period set by the High Court, however, the state petitioned for a further five years to change the system, claiming that it lacked the necessary budget to do so at once.

Adalah's attorney's opposed the petition, arguing that the sum cited by the state, NIS 65 million, did not justify the extension. More recently, they requested that the court order the state to scrap the system immediately.

In their ruling Sunday, the justices added: "Instead of implementing the decision reached by the court, [the state] treated it as a recommendation to be honored according to their own set of priorities and at a date they would determine."