were severely restricted, and Palestinians were confined to controlled areas. For example, Palestinians leaving their towns and villages needed written permission from the military commander.102 Early discussions in the Knesset and Israeli political factions reveal government strategies ranging from implementation of mass expulsions of Palestinians to the carrying out of systematic harassment policies, designed to “encourage” Palestinians to “migrate”. While mass displacement was deemed impossible to implement “in times of peace”, the latterwas perceived as more practical and acceptable. Moshe Sharett,103 a signatory to Israel’s Declaration of Independence, summarized the principle as encouraging Palestinians who were willing to migrate and suggesting that “a policy based on minimal fairness should be adopted toward Arabs who were not inclined to leave”.104 The “minimal fairness” framework for achieving Palestinian displacement was adopted into Israeli governmental policy through various laws, regulations and practices.105 The result is that, today, more than 50 Israeli laws discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel.106 Moreover, the notion of equality is not mentioned as a constitutional right in Israel’s Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (1992),107 which acts as Israel’s Bill of Rights in absence of a constitution. In the absence of a constitutional protection of equality, this right is relegated to a secondary-level right, and is only afforded if it can be derived from other rights granted by the Basic Law. Moreover, paragraph ten of the law provides that, “[t]his Basic Law shall not affect the validity of any law in force prior to the commencement of the Basic Law.” A series of discriminatory laws adopted in the 1950s and1960s thus continue to violate the fundamental right of Palestinians to equality. 102 Ibid. page 16 103 In addition to being one of the signatories to Israel’s Declaration of Independence, Moshe Sharett was the first Foreign Minister and the second Prime Minister of Israel. 104 Nur Massalha, “A Land without a People: Israel, Transfer and the Palestinians 1949-96”, Faber and Faber Limited, 1997, ISBN-13 978-0571191000, page 3. 105 Other policies included a system of control that limited and manipulated the Palestinians inside Israel. Lustick suggests that Israel’s control over its Palestinian citizens is maintained through a threefold system of segmentation, dependence and co-optation. The cooptation system meant that the government will adopt and encourage the ‘positive’ elements among the Palestinians, and isolating and marginalizing the ‘negative’ elements in the society, see SabriJiryis, “The Arabs in Israel”, Monthly Review Press, New York, USA, Updated edition, 1 June 1977, ISBN-13: 978-0953454069, pages 63-64 106 For more information see BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, “Occasional Bulletin No.26: Israel’s Discriminatory Laws”, 2012. Available at: www.badil.org/ phocadownload/Badil_docs/bulletins-and-briefs/bulletinno.26.pdf; see also Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, “Discriminatory Laws in Israel”, located 2015. Available at: http://www.adalah.org/en/law/index 107 “Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty”, passed on 17 March 1992 and amended on 9 March 1994. Available at: www.knesset.gov.il/laws/special/eng/basic3_eng.htm 31