Dan Yakir, Chief Legal Counsel at ACRI

7-8 September

New Israel Fund was honoured to have Dan Yakir , Chief Legal Counsel at ACRI visit us from Israel and speak at various events. ACRI is our flagship grantee and Dan Yakir its leading spokesperson and legal mind. We were delighted to offer our supporters an update on the work that ACRI is doing in Israel.

In a series of engaging talks over 2 days, Dan addressed 5 audiences in London in an exhausting two day visit.

First up, Dan met with a group of 25 young professionals at a lunch hosted by Clifford Chance in their office at Canary Wharf, where he described the important issues that ACRI has been taking on. Dan also spoke at an evening drinks reception hosted by Doughty Street Chambers, one of London's leading human rights chambers. The discussion revolved around ACRI's work and the judicial processes that are available in the Israeli legal system to deal with human and civil rights violations.

In a completely different environment, Dan paired up with journalist Richard Miron to address an audience at New North London Synagogue of over 100 supporters. Richard has recently returned from a 3 month stint in Gaza where he was reporting on the disengagement from the perspective of the settlers for the BBC. As usual, it was a night of differing opinions and audience participation.

Dan also spoke at a private breakfast hosted by Davenport Lyons Solicitors. He led an in-depth discussion on balancing human rights and security and discussed the repercussion that the nature of current day terrorist threats have on the protection of human rights. We were privileged to have amongst our guests, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC who pointed out that in an impending UK case, the House of Lords will be examining a prominent Israeli Supreme Court decision dealing with torture. This decision was based on the arguments that ACRI had led in its petition. She highly praised the work of Dan, ACRI and the Israel Fund in its unwavering support of human rights.

During the various meetings, Dan illustrated the many pressing issues facing Israeli society in which ACRI has been involved. Amongst other cases, ACRI has played a fundamental role in ensuring that the route of the Security Barrier does not disproportionately affect the rights of Palestinians. In a very recent decision of 15 September 2005 , the court's nine-judge panel unanimously decided that the construction of the fence must be re-routed near the settlement of Alfei Menashe, thus upholding the petition brought by ACRI a year ago. The court ruled that "the state must within a reasonable period reconsider the various fence route alternatives at Alfei Menashe while examining security alternatives which cause less injury to the lives of the residents of the villagers in the enclave". This is the second decision in which the court upheld a petition to reroute the fence.

Another landmark case brought by Dan on behalf of ACRI and the Ka'adan family, saw the court upholding ACRI's petition to allocate a plot of land to an Arab family in an area where the residential community objected to an Arab family owning land. This decision upheld the fundamental principle that Arab Israelis should not be discriminated against.

In another display of the effectiveness and importance of ACRI's work, Dan outlined the facts of a recent urgent petition brought by ACRI last month against various government ministers involving a three-year-old Bedouin child diagnosed with cancer, who resides in an unrecognized village in the Negev. The petition demanded to connect the child's house to the national electric grid and provide her house with electricity on a regular basis on the basis that failure to connect the house of the infant may result in a risk to her life. ACRI has requested that the Israeli High Court of Justice hold an emergency hearing on this matter.

It was clear from Dan's presentations that ACRI is serving a crucial need in a society where there exists a constant tension between considerations of state security and human rights. New Israel Fund is proud to be supporting ACRI and playing such an important role in strengthening Israel's democracy. We ask you to help us continue support of ACRI by donating to New Israel Fund. New Israel Fund would also like to thank Clifford Chance, Doughty Chambers, Davenport Lyons solicitors and New North London Synagogue in partnering with us to help keep our UK supporters informed and engaged.