The organizations Citizens for the Environment, Mossawa Center, and Adam Teva V’Din submitted a request to the High Court of Justice for an interim injunction obligating the Ministry of Finance to freeze a sum of 100 million shekels from the environmental plan budget under Government Decision 550, pending a ruling on the petition the organizations filed last July. The petition demands that the Ministry of Finance transfer the budgets that have not been transferred to date.

It should be noted that the organizations submitted their petition last July against the Ministries of Finance and Environmental Protection, demanding the transfer of 100 million shekels to implement Section 26(d) of Government Decision No. 550, which relates to the five-year economic plan to reduce environmental gaps in Arab society. Under the plan, the Ministry of Environmental Protection was supposed to invest 550 million shekels over five years, including 300 million shekels from the ministry’s Cleanliness Preservation Fund and an additional 250 million shekels to be transferred from the Ministry of Finance at a rate of 50 million shekels per year between 2022 and 2026. However, the Ministry of Finance has not transferred its share since 2023, despite repeated demands by the petitioning organizations and heads of Arab local authorities.

Accordingly, the organizations demanded in their petition the transfer of 100 million shekels to cover the amounts due for the years 2023 and 2024, while reserving the right to amend the petition to include the 2025 budget should the Ministry of Finance continue to withhold the allocated funds.

In light of recent developments and repeated attempts by the government to reduce these budgets and unlawfully divert them for other purposes, this request for an interim injunction seeks to prevent the Ministry of Finance from cutting the environmental budget.

Attorney Amal Ziyada of Adam Teva V’Din stated: “The primary purpose of this budget is to address environmental crises in Arab localities, which have suffered from systematic discrimination and ongoing impoverishment since 1948. This is reflected in budget shortages, land confiscations, the restriction of building areas and green spaces, and poor management of waste and recycling systems.”

For her part, Attorney Jamila Hirdel, Director of Citizens for the Environment, emphasized: “The failure of the Ministry of Finance to transfer the budgets is part of an ongoing process of weakening local governance in Arab society and a complete disregard for the impact this has on residents, their health, and their right to live in a healthy environment and to receive basic services.”

Meanwhile, Nibal Ardat, Coordinator of Parliamentary and Legal Advocacy at the Mossawa Center, affirmed that “the failure to implement Decision 550 constitutes a blatant violation of the fundamental rights of Palestinian Arab citizens in Israel, such as the right to health, equality, and living in a dignified environment, all of which are integral to the right to live with dignity. The Ministry of Finance has a duty to implement this decision as an official governmental commitment, and failure to do so undermines principles of justice and administrative integrity.”