Palestine-Israel: Spatial/Racial Injustice

The follow two brief articles update legislative developments in Israel, forming a continuum of deepening Israeli apartheid, laid bare in the Nation-State Basic Law of July 2018. See the background in the Related Articles linked below, or search this website with key word “Knesset.”

Knesset Approves 200 Communities Where Arabs Are Banned

10 December 2018

The legislation committee at the Israeli Knesset yesterday approved 200 extra communities where non-Jewish inhabitants can be banned, Arab48 reported.

MK Bezalel Smotrich, from the Jewish Home party, initiated the bill to add the new communities to the list of areas which enjoy power to choose the families and persons who are planning to move in to them.

The majority of the 700 communities which enjoy this right are based in the Galilee.

Critics have said this racist policy is another means through which Israel plans to Judaise the areas and wipe away their Palestinian history by banning Arabs from living in them.

Smotrich claims the law is needed because non-Jews do not keep up with the social fabric of the communities.

Original article

Israel’s Parliament Rejects Equal Rights Bill

13 December 2018

The Israeli parliament has rejected a draft bill affirming citizens’ right to equality. According to a report by Israeli activist Yossi Gurvitz for Mondoweiss, the Knesset voted down the bill by 71-38.

‘Basic Law’: Equality’, drafted by Meretz MK Mossi Raz, stated: “The State of Israel shall maintain equal political rights amongst all its citizens, without any difference between religions, race and sex.”

In the vote, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition – which has only 61 seats in the Knesset – “enjoyed the support” of opposition party Yesh Atid, led by Yair Lapid.

In addition, Gurvitz reported, “many members” of the Labor Party-dominated Zionist Camp faction “fled the hall before the vote”.

As related by Gurvitz, “Israeli law never recognised equality between citizens”.

“An attempt to enter an equality clause to the Human Dignity and Freedom Basic Law, back in 1992, failed – mostly due to the opposition of the religious parties”, he added.

According to Gurvitz, the rejection of the bill will be a blow to Druze Israelis, who were promised by Netanyahu “he’d grant them an exemption” to the discriminatory Jewish Nation-State law.

“Those 71 votes represent the hard core of practical Zionism – Zionism as it is, not as it may be,” Gurvitz wrote, “who decided Israel would be a Jewish country and not a democratic one.”

Original article

Photo: Israeli Knesset in session, 10 December 2013. Source: Itzik Edri/Wikipedia.

Apartheid in the Continuum of Israeli Legislation

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Israel`s Top Court Vets New Colony Law

Israel: Who Say’s It’s Not Apartheid?!

Israel: Court Protects Racist Land Governance

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Israel Says Land Theft `Benefits Palestinians`

Palestine/Israel: Further Dividing Jerusalem