New project – Legal Aid for Palestinians (LEAP)

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We are pleased to announce that LEAP is a new program initiative within the Center for Advancement of Peace Initiatives.  LEAP is a non-profit legal aid project dedicated to assisting West Bank Palestinians in protecting their legal rights under Israeli law.

Within the West Bank, Israeli government agencies control and administer natural resources, ownership and use of property, imports and exports, personal travel within and outside of the area, as well access to employment and medical treatment within Israel and within East Jerusalem.  This makes West Bank Palestinians dependent on Israeli administrative agencies, and in turn on the Israeli courts to enforce principles of fairness on those agencies.

Without the aid of Israeli lawyers, it is impossible for West Bank Palestinians to protect their rights under the Israeli agency rules that determine on the West Bank who gets licenses, who travels, who has access to employment in Israel, who can protect their property,  who gets access to medical services, as well as other important matters. LEAP’s goal is to increase the availability of Israeli legal advice and representation in Israeli courts for West Bank Palestinians at low cost or, where necessary, at no cost.  Presently LEAP concentrates on providing legal aid for Palestinian who work in Israel, of which there are about 100,000, but whose right to entry is not formally recognized and who experience severe difficulties in protecting their access to places where they are employed.

We welcome LEAP to the Center for Advancement of Peace Initiatives (“CAPI”).  Whatever the political future of the area, it is self-evident that Israelis and Palestinians must cooperate in developing shared markets and using shared resources based on interdependence.  This legal assistance project is aimed at assisting Palestinians in getting a stronger and fairer place in the exchange relationship between Palestinians and Israelis that will inevitably continue to shape the future of the area.   In this vital sense, LEAP fully expresses the overall goals of the Center for Advancement of Peace Initiatives.