Announcing the Winners of the 2012 Goldberg IIE Prize for Peace in the Middle East

The Institute of International Education (IIE) is pleased to announce that Attorney Hassan Jabareen, the founder and General Director of Adalah–The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and Attorney Dan Yakir, the Chief Legal Counsel at The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), have been selected to receive the 2012 Victor J. Goldberg IIE Prize for Peace in the Middle East. The award, which includes a $10,000 prize, was presented during a June 26 ceremony at the American Corner/Arab Jewish Community Center in Jaffa, hosted by IIE in cooperation with the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. 

Mr. Jabareen, an Arab citizen of Israel, and Mr. Yakir, a Jewish citizen of Israel, have been selected to receive the Goldberg Prize in recognition of their work together in promoting equal rights for Arab citizens in Israel, in the belief that protecting the rights of Israel's Arab citizens is crucial to preserving peace and stability. As legal leaders of Adalah and ACRI, they are working together to use the Israeli legal system to foster a just and tolerant society, in which Jewish and Arab citizens can live as equals. 

A leading human rights lawyer in Israel, Hassan Jabareen founded Adalah in 1996, the first Arab-run legal center in Israel. He regularly litigates constitutional rights cases before the Israeli Supreme Court, using Israeli domestic law and international human rights standards to achieve equal rights for Arab citizens. He also teaches in the law faculties of Tel Aviv and Haifa universities. 

Mr. Yakir has held the position of Chief Legal Counsel at ACRI, a preeminent human rights and civil liberties organization in Israel, since 1995. He began at the organization in 1989 as an attorney. He has since brought a wide variety of precedent-setting cases to Israel’s Supreme Court and is recognized as one of Israel’s leading human rights lawyers. Landmark rulings achieved as a result of Mr. Yakir’s litigation cover issues such as the ban on the use of physical force as an accepted interrogation method employed by the security services and the prohibition of discrimination against Arab citizens in the allocation of state lands. 

IIE, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1919 and headquartered in New York City, created the Goldberg IIE Prize with an endowment from IIE's Executive Committee member and former Vice Chairman, Victor J. Goldberg. The Selection Committee for the Prize includes leading experts from academia, the nonprofit sector, and government. 

For more information about the Goldberg IIE Prize, including information on past winners, please visit www.iie.org/goldbergprize.