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Email Last Wednesday Israel's Supreme Court upheld a racist law which has been in operation since 2003. It denies spouses of Israeli citizens any right themselves to citizenship or residency if they happen to be a Palestinian from the West Bank or Gaza Strip, or from purported "enemy states."
This particular law - originally described as temporary but renewed ever since - is just one of a growing number of racist laws and attacks on human rights passed by Israel's parliament the Knesset.
Ever since 1948, when over 750,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homes during the Nakba, or catastrophe, Palestinians who managed to remain on their lands inside the Green Line have suffered from discrimination.
Palestinian citizens of Israel, who form 20 per cent of its population, have citizenship but not Israeli nationality.
Israel's 1950 Law of Return welcomes any Jew immigrating to Israel.
But Palestinian refugees have never been allowed to return, in violation of UN Resolution 194, which has repeatedly asserted the refugees' right to do so.
The attempt to remove Palestinians from their land did not end in 1948.
The most recent land grab, approved last year, was the Prawer Plan, which when implemented will forcibly remove 30,000 Bedouin from their land in the Negev.
The UN's special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples James Anaya pointed out that one of the reasons "identified for the demolitions of Bedouin structures is to clear the way for maintaining a Jewish presence throughout the Negev" - a clearly racially discriminatory state of affairs.
A further 27,000 Palestinian Bedouin are also facing forcible transfer from their homes in the West Bank.
Statements made by those justifying these laws are explicit.
One Israeli Supreme Court judge justifying its decision on January 11 linked the upholding of human rights to "national suicide."
And Knesset member Yaakov Katz from the far-right National Union claimed that "a fantastic miracle took place last night in the High Court when by a happenstance majority the state of Israel was saved from being flooded by 2-3 million Arab refugees."
Adalah, the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights, commented that "the Supreme Court approved a law - the likes of which do not exist in any democratic state in the world - depriving citizens from maintaining a family life in Israel only on the basis of the ethnicity or national belonging of their spouse."
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel also spoke out against the decision. "The majority opinion has stamped its approval on a racist law, one that will harm the very texture of the lives of families whose only sin is the Palestinian blood that runs in their veins," it said.
Israel faces increased international opposition to the state's racism, lawlessness and criminality. This has been met by increased attacks by the Israeli government on those - both internationally and within Israel - who stand up for human rights and international law.
Adalah has identified more than 30 main laws which discriminate directly or indirectly against Palestinians.
This wave of racist legislation being discussed by the Israeli parliament has resulted in European embassies in Israel producing a classified working paper saying that the EU should consider Israel's treatment of its Arab population a "core issue, not second tier to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," and proposing that the EU file an official protest every time a Bill discriminating against Arabs passes a second reading in the Knesset.
We're not buying into Israel's occupation. We have a responsibility to challenge this racism and support a framework of human rights, peace and justice.
Solidarity against Israel's violations of international law and apartheid is growing.
Companies that profit from Israel's illegal occupation, settlements and the wall are increasingly feeling the impact of a movement to stop buying their products.
The TUC adopted a policy in 2010, which was reaffirmed in 2011, boycotting such firms.
Ahava, a cosmetics firm based in an illegal settlement, lost its flagship London store last year. Agrexco, the key company that exported fresh produce from the settlements, went into liquidation.
And Veolia, which is involved in projects to facilitate the annexation of east Jerusalem and the dumping of waste inside the West Bank, is losing contract after contract as it is exposed as a toxic firm.
Now is the time to step up and support the basic principles of human rights, peace, justice, freedom and self-determination.
Now is the time to oppose Israel's racism. Now is the time to join the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) summed up the last Knesset parliamentary session by saying "we have witnessed a slew of Bills which, if passed, would infringe on the entire range of human rights and with them the very foundations of Israeli democracy. These Bills will harm - among other basic rights - freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and freedom of dissent of Israeli citizens and residents."
These Bills included the Anti-Boycott Law, proposed committees of inquiry to investigate particular NGOs and attacks on those which have provided evidence of Israel's war crimes, a law forcing Palestinians to pay to demolish their own homes, preference in civil service hiring given to veterans of Israeli military service, and the Nakba law, which would fine public bodies if they commemorated the Nakba or if they hold events that aim to revoke "the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state" - that is to demand that Israel become a state for all its citizens regardless of religion.
Sawsan Zaher of Adalah described the Nakba law as legitimising "the continuation of deep discrimination against us."
This particular law - originally described as temporary but renewed ever since - is just one of a growing number of racist laws and attacks on human rights passed by Israel's parliament the Knesset.
Ever since 1948, when over 750,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homes during the Nakba, or catastrophe, Palestinians who managed to remain on their lands inside the Green Line have suffered from discrimination.
Palestinian citizens of Israel, who form 20 per cent of its population, have citizenship but not Israeli nationality.
Israel's 1950 Law of Return welcomes any Jew immigrating to Israel.
But Palestinian refugees have never been allowed to return, in violation of UN Resolution 194, which has repeatedly asserted the refugees' right to do so.
The attempt to remove Palestinians from their land did not end in 1948.
The most recent land grab, approved last year, was the Prawer Plan, which when implemented will forcibly remove 30,000 Bedouin from their land in the Negev.
The UN's special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples James Anaya pointed out that one of the reasons "identified for the demolitions of Bedouin structures is to clear the way for maintaining a Jewish presence throughout the Negev" - a clearly racially discriminatory state of affairs.
A further 27,000 Palestinian Bedouin are also facing forcible transfer from their homes in the West Bank.
Statements made by those justifying these laws are explicit.
One Israeli Supreme Court judge justifying its decision on January 11 linked the upholding of human rights to "national suicide."
And Knesset member Yaakov Katz from the far-right National Union claimed that "a fantastic miracle took place last night in the High Court when by a happenstance majority the state of Israel was saved from being flooded by 2-3 million Arab refugees."
Adalah, the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights, commented that "the Supreme Court approved a law - the likes of which do not exist in any democratic state in the world - depriving citizens from maintaining a family life in Israel only on the basis of the ethnicity or national belonging of their spouse."
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel also spoke out against the decision. "The majority opinion has stamped its approval on a racist law, one that will harm the very texture of the lives of families whose only sin is the Palestinian blood that runs in their veins," it said.
Israel faces increased international opposition to the state's racism, lawlessness and criminality. This has been met by increased attacks by the Israeli government on those - both internationally and within Israel - who stand up for human rights and international law.
Adalah has identified more than 30 main laws which discriminate directly or indirectly against Palestinians.
This wave of racist legislation being discussed by the Israeli parliament has resulted in European embassies in Israel producing a classified working paper saying that the EU should consider Israel's treatment of its Arab population a "core issue, not second tier to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," and proposing that the EU file an official protest every time a Bill discriminating against Arabs passes a second reading in the Knesset.
We're not buying into Israel's occupation. We have a responsibility to challenge this racism and support a framework of human rights, peace and justice.
Solidarity against Israel's violations of international law and apartheid is growing.
Companies that profit from Israel's illegal occupation, settlements and the wall are increasingly feeling the impact of a movement to stop buying their products.
The TUC adopted a policy in 2010, which was reaffirmed in 2011, boycotting such firms.
Ahava, a cosmetics firm based in an illegal settlement, lost its flagship London store last year. Agrexco, the key company that exported fresh produce from the settlements, went into liquidation.
And Veolia, which is involved in projects to facilitate the annexation of east Jerusalem and the dumping of waste inside the West Bank, is losing contract after contract as it is exposed as a toxic firm.
Now is the time to step up and support the basic principles of human rights, peace, justice, freedom and self-determination.
Now is the time to oppose Israel's racism. Now is the time to join the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) summed up the last Knesset parliamentary session by saying "we have witnessed a slew of Bills which, if passed, would infringe on the entire range of human rights and with them the very foundations of Israeli democracy. These Bills will harm - among other basic rights - freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and freedom of dissent of Israeli citizens and residents."
These Bills included the Anti-Boycott Law, proposed committees of inquiry to investigate particular NGOs and attacks on those which have provided evidence of Israel's war crimes, a law forcing Palestinians to pay to demolish their own homes, preference in civil service hiring given to veterans of Israeli military service, and the Nakba law, which would fine public bodies if they commemorated the Nakba or if they hold events that aim to revoke "the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state" - that is to demand that Israel become a state for all its citizens regardless of religion.
Sawsan Zaher of Adalah described the Nakba law as legitimising "the continuation of deep discrimination against us."
Morning Star
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