JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israel’s top court rescinded a government educational program, saying it discriminated against Arabs. The High Court of Justice last Monday found in favour of a petition arguing that the 2002 policy guaranteeing extra educational subsidies to “national priority” communities unfairly favoured Jews. Of some 500 villages and towns listed under the category, only two were predominantly Arab, despite that sector’s generally underprivileged conditions. The ruling is expected to be used by Israeli Arab lobbyists to oppose other state policies seen as discriminatory.
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israel’s population is believed to have passed the 7 million mark. Ma’ariv reported last Tuesday that the population now stands at around 7.1 million, based on extrapolating from its size at the end of 2005 – 6.99 million – and an annual growth rate of 1.7 per cent. According to the government’s Central Bureau of Statistics, 76 per cent of Israelis are Jewish, 20 per cent are Arabs and the remainder are naturalized foreign workers or immigrants not considered Jewish by Jewish law. Israel’s population is projected to pass 10 million in 2024.
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Two branches of McDonald’s in Israel are getting new signs so prospective customers know the outlets are kosher. Under an initiative championed by the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, Yisrael Meir Lau, the two branches of the fast-food chain in the city that have rabbinical certification are getting new Hebrew-language signs with “kosher” clearly marked in the national colours of blue and white. “I feared that tourists or youths from outside Tel Aviv would come for a visit, eat at a kosher branch and assume that all of the McDonald’s branches in Israel are kosher,” Lau was quoted saying in Yediot Achronot last Monday. The remainder of the some 100 branches in Israel retain the distinctive white, yellow and red signs in English.
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