A new law passed Thursday that effectively bans the naturalization of Palestinian spouses of Israeli Jews was condemned by human rights advocates in Israel and around the world, some of whom called it the latest manifestation of an apartheid regime.
Reut Shaer, a lawyer with the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, toldReuters that the law “comes off as more xenophobic or racist because it’s not only giving extra rights and privileges to Jewish people, but also preventing certain basic rights only from the Arab population.”
Mossi Raz, an Israeli lawmaker from the social democratic Meretz party, called the new law “racist” and vowed to work to repeal it.
U.S. journalist Ryan Grim tweeted that “race- and ethnicity-based laws like this are the hallmarks of apartheid.”
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, a Chicago city alderman, tweeted that “Israeli apartheid is a crime against humanity,” while calling on the US to “act to end the Israeli apartheid regime.”
The Israeli Knesset has reauthorised a law which bans Palestinians from gaining citizenship or residency in Israel through marriage. This brazenly discriminatory law means more Palestinian families will be torn apart.
Join our ?? call to end apartheid: https://t.co/KBxLc7Fgsv? pic.twitter.com/oqhYzBBr9s
— Amnesty International (@amnesty) March 10, 2022
Supporters of the law – which passed by a vote of 45-15 – said it would boost Israel’s security while preserving the nation’s Jewish character.
“The state of Israel is Jewish and so it will remain,” Simcha Rothman, a member of the far-right Religious Zionism party who introduced the legislation. “Today, God willing, Israel’s defensive shield will be significantly strengthened.”
Interior Minister and law co-sponsor Ayelet Shaked – a member of the right-wing Yamina alliance who has amplified calls for genocide against Palestinians – hailed the vote as a victory for a “Jewish and democratic state” over a “state of all its citizens.”
Saying the quiet part out loud. Ayelet Shaked – Israel’s minister of the interior celebrates new law that denies naturalization to Palestinian spouses of Israelis & thereby forces thousands of families to either emigrate or live apart. Translate the Hebrew to see what I mean https://t.co/guzy80TkMQ
— Akshaya Kumar (@AkshayaSays) March 10, 2022
Public polling has consistently shown a majority of Israeli Jews oppose marriage between Arabs and Jewish people. The very prospect of Jewish women dating Arab men has brought seething crowds out into the streets of towns like Bat Yam, where in 2010 one demonstrator asserted that “any Jewish woman who goes with an Arab should be killed.”
It’s not just marriage. Rabbis in dozens of Israeli cities and towns – some of them government employees – have issued religious edicts forbidding Jews from renting homes to Arabs, including Israeli citizens.
Leading Israeli and international human rights groups, as well as prominent international figures including former US President Jimmy Carter and the late South African human rights icon Desmond Tutu, have accused Israel of perpetrating a system of apartheid.
Brett Wilkins is is staff writer for Common Dreams. Based in San Francisco, his work covers issues of social justice, human rights and war and peace. This originally appeared at CommonDreams and is reprinted with the author’s permission.
Why is ‘racist’ in scare quotes?
If it’s somehow mitigated when Israel does it to Arabs in their midst, that’s a tacit admission of war against those same Arabs — a maneuver to compel their ‘transfer.’
Reut Shaer, a lawyer with the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, toldReuters that the law “comes off as more xenophobic or racist because it’s not only giving extra rights and privileges to Jewish people, but also preventing certain basic rights only from the Arab population.”
Waiting for “never again”. That’s the usual excuse for their burgeoning apartheid
Bill Kristol on Twitter whenever Israel does something like this: This is great! Shalom! Israel has the Right To Defend Itself, and the right to Defend Its Jewish Character. Because HOLOCAUST!
Bill Kristol when someone slightly suggests to limit mass immigration to Western nations: That’s RACIST! Unworthy of a democracy. That’s Not Who We Are. “We Republicans” must oppose racism.
Bill Kristol right after Kabul was taken by the Taliban, said, “We must now focus on airlifting Afghans.” To the U.S., of course. And to Europe. What about Israel? No! Jewish Identity!