the israeli incorporation regime61 disadvantaged groups, no general statute relates to the right to equality or freedom from discrimination for all citizens.27 As noted by Adalah: While Supreme Court Justices have interpreted The Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty as comprising the principle of equality, this fundamental right is currently protected by judicial interpretation alone. …. The absence of an explicit guarantee of the right to equality in the Basic Laws or ordinary statute diminishes the power of this right and leaves the Palestinian minority in Israel vulnerable to direct and indirect discrimination.28 On this point, recent observations on Israeli civic rights submitted by the United Nations Human Rights Committee in July 2010 stressed that “the State party’s Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (1992), which serves as Israel’s bill of rights does not contain a general provision for equality and non-discrimination.”29 And they move on to argue that Israel “should amend its Basic Laws and other legislation to include the principle of nondiscrimination and ensure that allegations of discrimination brought before its domestic courts are promptly addressed and implemented.”30 The lack of an explicit guarantee and protection of the right to equality is rooted in the declared Jewish character of the state. In fact, although the definition of the Israeli state is continually contested, movements within Israel to amend the wording of The Basic Laws since 1985 so that the State of Israel is “the state of its citizens” or “the state of the Jewish people and its Arab citizens” have consistently been voted down by Israeli Knesset members.31 The self-definition of Israel as a Jewish state is most tangibly and indisputably revealed in and maintained through the two key 27 For more on the absence of legal assurances of equality, see Masalha (1993). 28 Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Inequality Report, 14. Emphasis added. 29 See United Nations Human Rights Committee, Ninety-ninth session, Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 40 of the Covenant: Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee–Israel, (CCPR/C/ISR/CO/3), July 29, 2010, Section C, Point 6, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/docs/CCPR.C.ISR.CO.3.doc, retrieved from Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, The Inequality Report, 14. Emphasis added. 30 Ibid. Emphasis added. 31 For years, Knesset members have rejected, again and again, bills proposed by Arab MKs and political representatives that are aimed at meeting the needs and improving the socio-legal conditions of the Arab community. Whether explicitly asking for universal equality for all citizens or addressing inequalities in the allocation of funds in the areas of education, culture and art, or the inclusion of Arabs in sporting organizations, societies and unions, such bills are consistently voted down. For a detailed account of this ordeal since 2002, see Sultany (2003), (2004) and (2005). See also Mtanes Shihadeh, Israel and the Palestinian Minority: Political Monitoring Reports (Haifa, Israel: Mada al-Carmel: Arab