The Galilee Society - The Arab National Society For Health Research & Services(R.A.)

Garden Rue
Ruta chalepensis
Family: Rutaceae
Rue is a strong-smelling, somewhat bitter botanical herb, often incomparable to any other plant. Culinary uses of Rue have been documented from Ethiopia, through the Mediterranean region, to England. In Palestine, Rue is best known as an additive to storing and curing black olives. Medicinally Rue has been used to treat arthritis and eye skin diseases. Leaves and stems are immersed in olive oil and placed in the sun for up to 15 days; the oil can then be applied to the skin. An infusion of the leaves is also known to treat poisoning.

Goals and Background

Goals

The Galilee Society´s Rikaz Databank(http:\\www.rikaz.org) is an online socio-economic database containing information pertaining to the Palestinian minority in Israel. The Databank was created to support and promote the empowerment of the Palestinian community.

The Rikaz Databank provides an informational clearinghouse on both the Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel, and facilitates comparison and analysis of findings in order to:

Help Palestinians in Israel achieve their legitimate rights as stipulated in the UN Charter on Human Rights, and their socio-economic rights as Israeli citizens;

Contribute accurate and compelling facts to advocacy campaigns and initiatives on behalf of the Palestinian community;

Offer essential data to planners, decision-makers and researchers in the fields of education, employment, health and other key areas, in order to promote development in this community;

Draw the attention of the Israeli government to disparities between Palestinian and Jewish living standards, and to help reach a clear understanding of the status and the specific needs of the Palestinian minority.

Individuals and organizations benefiting from the Rikaz Databank include:

Advocacy groups and NGOs;

Universities, Research Centers and Individual Researchers and Students;

Municipalities and Government Agencies;

Businesses and Advertising Companies.

Background

The Rikaz Databank was created as a response to the lack of data available concerning the Palestinian minority in Israel. Palestinian citizens of Israel constitute close to 20% of the population, numbering over one million people in 2002. Most Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homeland after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Only 150,000 out of 900,000 Palestinians remained in Israel, while the rest became refugees in Arab states or outside the region.

Palestinians living in Israel face systematic discrimination in most areas of their lives: in land rights, education, language, economics, culture, environment, health, political representation and even information. Government budget allocations to the community are disproportionately low. As a result, the Palestinian community is relegated to a lower standard of living. Unemployment and poverty are disproportionately high, and many villages lack basic health, education and infrastructure services. At best, the community can claim second-class citizenship, and is prevented from realizing its full democratic rights.

Information regarding the Jewish majority is widely available, but there has been a pervasive disregard for information specific to the nation's Palestinian community. Palestinians are denied a collective identity. They are negatively identified as "non-Jews" in official statistics, and they are subdivided into groups according to religious affiliation, rather than nationality. By compiling information on the Palestinian minority rather than its subsidiary communities, Rikaz allows for illuminating comparisons between Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel. As an example, the following graph illustrates the percentages of each nationality that participate in selected occupation types:

Selected Occupation Types by Nationality

Statistics such as this one, that quantify the iniquities in Israeli society, give crucial support to Palestinians championing their cause, both locally and internationally. In a world where knowledge is a form of power, Palestinians need access to a full range of information about their community in order to win recognition, and fulfillment, of their fundamental rights. The Rikaz Databank was developed in response to this need. It is an invaluable resource for individuals and organizations seeking to access socio-economic data in relation to the Palestinian minority in Israel and its relation to the Jewish majority.