Here

And then this Bear, Pooh Bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, F.O.P. (Friend of Piglet's), R.C. (Rabbit's Companion), P.D. (Pole Discoverer), E.C. and T.F. (Eeyore's Comforter and Tail-finder)--in fact, Pooh himself--said something so clever that Christopher Robin could only look at him with mouth open and eyes staring, wondering if this was really the Bear of Very Little Brain whom he had know and loved so long.

Friday, October 26, 2007

discriminatory intent in israeli law?

I'm not sure that this post is worthy of being the only one in 5 weeks, but it's going to be.

There is a story floating around. (Summary: an Israeli girls school (allegedly) physically separates students based on ethnic heritage (ie, Ashkenaz/Sefarad).) I don't usually blog about things just to rant about them, and that's not my point here. But, I was curious about the last paragraph:
מנגד, טוען עורך-דין דני יקיר, יועץ משפטי מהאגודה לזכויות האזרח בישראל, כי כוונת המוסד החינוכי אינה משנה דבר, מה שחשוב זה מה שקרה בפועל: "זה בכלל לא משנה אם במקור, היתה כוונה להפלות תלמידות מזרחיות או לא. התוצאה של האמצעים שננקטו שם היא הפרדה מוחלטת בין האוכלוסיות, באמצעים מאוד משמעותיים".

It seems this lawyer says that an action that discriminates, even if it was not motivated by invidious motives, is illegal in Israel. This is in contrast to the US, where discriminatory intent is always necessary. True, in the US, an egregious (state) action like the one at hand would likely be ruled illegal because egregious disparity can serve as evidence of discriminatory intent (cf yick wo v hopkins), but the Israeli lawyer seems to be making a stronger statement than that - that proof of discriminatory intent is totally unnecessary. Does anyone know, is this the law in Israel?