Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran an honorary doctorate in recognition of his many years in the legal arena and for his work to create closer ties between Jews and Arabs, the university announced on Monday.

Haifa University President Aharon Ben-Zeev said Joubran had “given a place for social issues in his rulings” as well as protecting vulnerable groups in Israeli society.

A Haifa native, Joubran is Israel’s second Arab Supreme Court justice. Born in 1947, the son of a local Christian Arab family from Haifa’s German Colony, he began his judicial career in 1982, in the Haifa Magistrate’s Court. He was appointed a permanent Supreme Court justice in May 2004, and was one of the three justices who upheld Moshe Katsav’s rape conviction last year.

He has also been active in Jewish-Arab relations, helping found the Arab-Jewish community center Beit Kedem in Acre and serving on the board of Haifa’s Arab-Jewish cultural center, Beit Hagefen.

Joubran has been the subject of controversy, most recently when he refused to sing the Israeli national anthem at former Supreme Court president Dorit Beinisch’s retirement ceremony. (© 1995-2011, The Jerusalem Post 05/01/12)