The Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favor of establishing a special directorate, affiliated with the Israel Lands Administration (ILA), that is concerned with building only for Jews. "The establishment of such a directorate to construct solely for Jews is not a violation of the right to equality and the right of citizens to live in dignity," the court said. However, it enshrines racial discrimination and opens the way for formal institutions to adopt discrimination as a basis for decision-making. The ruling was made following a petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel - Adalah - 20 years ago due to measures prohibiting the appointment of Arab citizens to the ILA board of directors. On behalf of the National Committee for the Heads of the Arab Local Authorities in Israel, the two bodies called for an amendment to the ILA law, stipulating that six of the 14 members of the board of directors be delegates of the so-called Jewish National Fund because this fund promotes bias to Jews in land use. But the court categorically rejected appeals related to equality violations and imposed a fine on the petitioners. “The existence of the Jewish National Fund in the ILA board can neither be avoided nor shall it or its delegates be excluded. There is no discrimination or racism in allowing the National Fund to intervene in all matters relating to land uses,” said Judge Noam Sohlberg. Within the same context, Palestinian Arab towns in Israel’s southern triangle have been complaining about the Eastern Railway Project, which will affect their lands. Popular committees in the southern triangle, in cooperation with the Arab Center for Alternative Planning (ACAP), held meetings to coordinate protests and legal steps against the confiscation of Arab lands in the region. According to experts, the Eastern Railway Project aims to extend an additional railway connecting the cities of Hadera and Lod, passing through Qalansawe, Taybeh, Tira and Jaljulye, which will pose new obstacles to the urban development in these towns. The plan will confiscate more than 500 dunums of the land in Taybeh, about 160 dunums in Tira, about 60 dunums in Jaljulye, and dozens of dunums in Qalansawe.