ABSTRACT
Six years after the publication of the Or Commission Report, which studied the antecedents of the October 2000 Events, this year’s Annual Or Lecture, organized by the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Israel is devoted to an evaluation of the work of the Or Commission, its conclusions and its recommendations.
Professor of law Ruth Gavison discusses the problematic aspects of a commission of inquiry’s authority, based on criteria that are less than legally unequivocal and without granting option of appeal, to disqualify a public official from serving in a political office. According to Prof. Gavison, although commissions of inquiry in Israel typically consider themselves competent to formulate personal recommendations concerning publicly elected officials, they should – as the Or Commission did with reference to Arab public leaders – avoid such conclusions. The Arab minority’s disappointment at what they considered a failure of the Commission to attribute blame to political officials is evidence that the work of commissions of inquiry gives rise to unrealistic expectations.
Prof. Gavison analyzes the Commission’s basic assumptions and its recommendations, which emphasized the inequality and neglect of the Arab society in Israel, and linked the reduction of gaps between these two sectors with the elimination of discrimination against minorities. She believes, however, that the programmatic outline proposed by the Commission was based on the overly optimistic assumption that all sectors of Israeli society share a common ground for action. While she notes that the need to eliminate discrimination is uncontested, there is no consensus on the root causes of the disparities between the sectors. As a result, there is no guarantee that elimination of discrimination will reduce the disparities. Consequently, what is needed is extensive and meticulous action to promote equality between Arabs and Jews in Israel.
Prof. Gavison views the Or Commission Report as an important document which demonstrates that addressing the relations between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority in Israel is a “major challenge that everyone must constantly address, because it is the very essence of our life in Israel.” She notes that there is a no other vision for the State of Israel, which is the vision outlined by the Commission: a life in which the Jewish majority and Arab minority live alongside each other in a state that carefully maintains both its unique Jewish character and its democratic features.