A range of public spending policies initiated by Israel privilege the Jewish majority, compounding the inequitable allocation of state resources. One of the main tools employed by the state with which to channel public funds towards Jewish citizens is by conditioning eligibility for public services and economic benefits on the performance of “military service.” The vast majority of Palestinian citizens of Israel are exempted from military service and do not serve in the Israeli army for political and historical reasons. Thus the use of this criterion as a condition for awarding economic benefits discriminates against them on the basis of their national belonging and violates their right to equal enjoyment of various public services. By employing this criterion, the state is violating its duty to serve as a trustee for the entire public on an equal basis. Significantly, individuals who have served in the Israeli military already receive substantial compensation under The Absorption of Discharged Soldiers Law – 1994, which enumerates the broad range of social and economic benefits to which discharged soldiers are entitled, including housing and educational grants.56
For instance, a discriminatory Israeli governmental policy provides substantial financial support or “extended support”—in the form of low-interest governmental loans—for home mortgages to Israeli citizens who have completed military or national service. The majority of Arab citizens are automatically excluded from these state resources. Under this policy, a married couple in a poor socio-economic situation, each of whom has completed full military service, receives NIS 124,500 (around US $30,000) more towards their home mortgage than a similarly-situated married couple neither of whom served in the military. Since the purpose of supplemental governmental housing support is to assist the socio-economically disadvantaged to find housing solutions, the performance of military service is an arbitrary and irrelevant consideration in this instance. Therefore the effect of this and similar grants and financial support programs that are conditioned on the performance of military service is to widen inequality between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority in the state.