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Law clinics support northern Israelis whose lives are in limbo

University of Haifa's clinic is also working to help residents of the region receive social benefits from the government and provide support on issues for which the government has traditionally not intervened.

University of Haifa Law students attend a briefing with University lawyers at a hotel before the team began assisting evacuees in the early days of the war.(Courtesy)
University of Haifa Law students attend a briefing with University lawyers at a hotel before the team began assisting evacuees in the early days of the war.(Courtesy)

University of Haifa’s Clinics for Law and Social Change have been working behind the scenes with members of Israel’s northern communities to broker a multimillion dollar deal with the government that would provide legal support to residents who have grappled with the fallout of the Swords of Iron War.

A wave of pressure caused by a petition to Israel’s High Court of Justice, plus efforts from the public and hearings at the Knesset where staff from the University of Haifa’s legal clinics spoke, led to the inclusion of communities that weren’t evacuated in the original compensation program. The state agreed to include some of the settlements that are between 2.2-3.1 miles (3.5-5 kilometers) from the border in some longterm programs. To date, though, the state has not provided any solutions for the immediate needs of the residents in these communities, many of whom still live close to the border and whose lives are in turmoil.

Moreover, the state has not provided any long- or short-term solutions for the communities that live just 3.1 miles from the border with Lebanon. 

Since the war broke out, some 68,500 Israelis from the north have been evacuated as Hezbollah has been firing rockets at these communities on a nearly daily basis since Oct. 8. The attacks on communities in the north have resulted in the deaths of at least 26 civilians and 20 Israel Defense Forces soldiers thus far. In June, media reports stated that the terror organization has fired 19,000 rockets into Israel resulting in a precarious security situation for the region.

The clinics efforts to help residents of the north began in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, when staffers set up legal-aid booths at hotels across the north of Israel, where the university is based. There, they worked with residents on an individual basis to help ensure that they receive the social benefits from the government to which they are entitled.

The legal clinic then pivoted to providing support on issues for which the government has traditionally not intervened. For example, the clinic assisted citizens who needed to get out of an apartment lease. With the government considering such cases as private matters between two individuals, the legal clinic stepped in to offer its services to help people explore legal avenues to resolve landlord-tenant disputes. 

In addition to this, the legal clinic also filed a petition with the High Court of Justice on behalf of students from Kiryat Shmona in the north and Sderot in the south, who attended Tel Hai College and Sapir College, respectively. Since these students were living in college dormitories, they were not considered eligible for the government’s evacuee compensation package, as dorms are considered temporary housing, and most students cannot register their dorm address with the Ministry of the Interior. Since the legal clinic’s intervention, the government has told eligible students that they would be able to receive the grants.

“This is amazing news for our clients and other students who study and live in Kiryat Shmona and Sderot, and who were evacuated after Oct. 7, but who were found ineligible for the compensation that other residents of these towns were,” said Tammy Harel Ben Shahar, a senior lecturer at University of Haifa’s Faculty of Law and the academic director of the Clinics for Law and Social Change. “The state’s update to the court also implies that there will be additional exceptions so this case will likely solve problems for additional people who were found ineligible for all kinds of reasons.” 

Still, there are many other cases the legal clinic is working on, including another initiative which requests that Sderot residents be retroactively compensated for paying rent for homes they cannot live in.

The clinic also worked with residents in the north who experienced complications with their once-routine commute to work. There are many evacuees who work for companies located in areas that were not evacuated, since the government has deemed that only people who live within 2.2 miles of the north are granted evacuee status. With many evacuees sent to hotels across the country, some found themselves suddenly facing a long commute to work. 

“While these small individual cases resolved themselves over the course of this past year, larger issues remain,” Ben Shahar said.

“Thousands of Israelis live beyond 3.5 kilometers from the border yet are in very dangerous locations. They’re not included in the compensation scheme, and many evacuated themselves,” she said, citing the northern village of Majdal Shams, where 12 Druze children were recently killed by a Hezbollah rocket as an example of such a scenario. 

Another concern pertains to small villages that had limited access to schools and health-care clinics, and whose residents often commuted to larger towns. With many of those larger towns evacuated, those in small remote villages are finding it even more challenging to access these basic public services. As such, the legal clinic filed a petition with the High Court of Justice on behalf of the residents of these small villages, which are home to about 20,000 people in total.

On the educational front, the legal clinic is helping more children have access to education. While most schools in the north are closed, the only ones that are operational are ones where students can stay in bomb shelters at all times. Space in those schools has become so limited that at times kids have only have 12 hours of instruction per week. Additionally, driving on these roads between settlements and the places where they receive services (including education) is extremely dangerous.

“The court is reluctant to make a conclusive decision on such delicate matters and is therefore trying to pressure the government to address the problem. This is often how the court works, where they refuse to make a decision but still send signals to the government that the current status quo is not satisfactory,” Ben Shahar said. 

The demand for these cases is so substantial that the clinic is looking toward opening an additional branch that exclusively addresses issues arising from the fallout of the war.

As Ben-Shahar said, “We choose to advocate for these groups whose legal problems haven’t been sufficiently addressed.”

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University of Haifa is a world-class university dedicated to academic excellence and social responsibility. The university expands educational opportunities and upward mobility for all members of society, secures and stabilizes the north of the country, and serves as an example of tolerance and coexistence in Israel and the entire region.
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