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The following letter was addressed to the President of Ann Arbor University by BADIL Resource Center in response to the ADC Action Alert.

To:					From:
Lee Bollinger				BADIL Resource Center for
President				Palestinian Residency
University of Michigan			& Refugee Rights
Ann Arbor, MI				Bethlehem, West Bank
Email: leecbol@umich.edu		Email: badil@baraka.org

Re: Please Reconsider Honorary Doctorate Award to Israeli Justice Aharon Barak by your University

Dear Mr. Bollinger,

On behalf of BADIL Resource Center - a Palestinian human rights organization which has for years monitored and advocated an immediate end of Israel's policy of forceful eviction of the Palestinian inhabitants of Jerusalem from their hometown - we would like to draw your attention to the fact that Justice Barak carries major responsibility for this policy, which, according to all international standards and laws, represents a gross violation of basic human rights.

Justice Barak has played a central role in the design of the legal basis for the revocation of Palestinian residency rights in Jerusalem. Following are extracts from the 1988 Israeli High Court decision, written by Justice Aharon Barak, in a petition submitted by Mubarak Awad, a Palestinian Jerusalemite (Israeli Supreme Court petition 282/88). In this petition, Mr. Awad, who had taken on US citizenship, appealed against the deportation order issued by the Israeli interior ministry. Justice Barak ruled:
" I do not accept the argument according to which ... the status of East Jerusalem residents is a special one and they are granted the special status of quasi-citizenship or constitutional residency� The plaintiff's [Mr. Awad's] attorney claimed that it is unreasonable to base the residency of East Jerusalem residents only on the Law of Entry to Israel [applied to non-Jewish visitor/immigrants; BADIL], because the result would be that the Interior Ministry could, with one word, deport all East Jerusalem residents by cancelling their permanent residency permit. This argument is baseless... Permanent residency is according to law and only outstanding reasons could justify the use of this authority."

Ten years later, the political conflict over Jerusalem has created, in the eyes of the Israeli Interior Ministry, such "outstanding reasons" - and massive revocation of residency permits from Palestinian Jerusalem have become bitter reality. Between 1996 and 1998, 2,083 ID cards have been confiscated, forcing some 8,332 Palestinian Jerusalemites into exile or illegal existence in the city.

BADIL Resource Center, together with many other Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations, is currently engaged in a broad public Campaign to End ID Card Confiscation in Jerusalem. This campaign revolves around a new petition submitted by Israeli human rights lawyers to the High Court, which is again headed by Justice Barak. The first session of the Court took place on 22 April 1999. The decision was postponed for September/October 1999 - leaving Palestinian residents without legal protection for another six months.

We can only suppose that you have been unaware of the Israeli Court's role in the injustices meted out to Palestinians. We are confident that neither the University as an institution nor you personally would want to be associated with a policy that is known here and world wide as the Israeli policy of ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem. We understand that you are in fact a lawyer with an admirable record on civil liberties issues. The decision to award an honorary doctorate to Mr. Barak is unwarranted and certainly sends the wrong message to students and to the larger community. We hope that you will be able to rectify this situation.

We will be happy to provide you with additional information and documentation and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,
Ingrid Jardadat Gassner, director
BADIL Resource Center

Cc: Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations, ADC;