Israel's Knesset constitution and justice committee will discuss Tuesday a bill to guarantee more fitting representation for Arabs, Druze and Circassians in public employment, in preparation for its second and third readings in the plenum, according to Haaretz newspaper.
Under the proposed law, the civil service commissioner may actively promote employment of Arab citizens in government ministries and companies, said the paper.
Only 5 percent of civil servants come from the Arab, Druze or Circassian sectors of the population.
The bill gives the government the right to designate positions for suitable Arab applicants. It also proposes each ministry submit a report on the implementation of these provisions to the civil service commissioner once a year, Haaretz said.
The commissioner will report back to the government and the Knesset committee on the steps taken to improve the representation of these populations.
Provisions regarding fitting representation will also apply to people with disabilities.
Arab members of Knesset, Salah Tarif and Azmi Bishara, have submitted private members' bills on the issue, said the paper.
It added that these bills will be discussed Tuesday by the Knesset committee in preparation for their first reading.
In his bill, Tarif points out that out of the 57,000 civil servants in the country, only 2,818 are from minorities, and only 253 of them are Druze.
Bishara, meanwhile, notes that out of the 2,400 senior employees in the civil service, only 25 are Arabs, according to Haaretz.
In the meantime, attorney general Elyakim Rubinstein said the term "fitting representation" did not mean the fixing of quotas.
He told the daily that the rate of representation must be determined based on the nature, purposes and requirements of each government corporation and a breakdown of the suitable, available candidates for the positions.
Rubinstein stressed that the individuals responsible for appointing directors of government companies, including ministers, must make efforts to locate Arab candidates for these positions, adding that prior to the approval of boards of directors, the government must examine whether reasonable steps were taken to find the suitable Arab candidates.
The attorney general added that these provisions should be viewed as part of the effort to increase equality for the Arab population in the various aspects of life in the country, according to Haaretz.
These instructions were prepared prior to the recent violent incidents in the Arab sector, Rubinstein said.
"Just as we have to fight uncompromisingly against trends that want to remove the Jewish label from the state and undermine its foundations, so must we struggle with the same breath to achieve equality," he said - Albawaba.com
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