Racist Law
The Israeli occupation authorities have been capitalizing on the unlimited support offered by the Trump’s administration to press ahead and escalate its aggressive and racist policies against the Palestinian people. The Zionist government has accelerated the confiscation of the Palestinian lands and the construction of new settlement blocks. Israeli authorities demolished 197 Palestinian structures in West Bank during the first half of 2018 as the Tel Aviv regime presses ahead with its land expropriation policies in the occupied territories. Eight homes, 10 livelihood-related structures and four retaining walls or fences were destroyed last month.
Moreover, Israel’s adoption of a law that defines the occupied territories as an exclusively “Jewish state” is further proof of the Zionist regime’s apartheid nature. The Israeli parliament’s endorsement of the so-called “nation-state” law is a highly dangerous development which is meant to legalize racism and apartheid, and the international community should pressure the regime into revoking it. The Zionist Knesset has adopted the law by 62 votes to 55. It prioritizes Jewish values over democratic ones in the occupied territories, declares Jerusalem the “capital” of Israel, allows Jewish-only communities, sets Hebrew as the official language of Israel and relegates Arabic from an official language to one with “special status.”
Israel’s parliament sparks anger among the Arab population by adopting an apartheid law that declares the occupying entity “the nation-state of the Jewish people.” The approval came despite widespread condemnations even among Israelis themselves, who argue that the law discriminates against Arabs and other minority groups and violates their basic rights.
The US administration’s unwavering support and the Security Council’s inaction have emboldened the Israeli regime over the past seven decades to press ahead with its occupation, brutal acts and expansionist policies. Israel’s systematic brutalities in the blockaded Gaza Strip, have even gone as far as calling for the warplanes to drop bombs on the child protesters sending flaming kites into the occupied lands. Israel’s bombardments of infrastructure in Gaza and tightening of its siege have aggravated the humanitarian situation there.
The relocation of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May violates international law and UNSC resolutions and is a blatant example of the US backing for Israel. The Israeli regime has created an apartheid state in the occupied territories by approving the Jewish nation-state law. The Tel Aviv regime had adopted the role model of the US segregation of the Black and embarked on segregating the Palestinian people. The Israelis are not seeking a two-state solution, they are rather pursuing a de facto annexation of the Palestinian land.
The law had drawn criticism by a wide range of NGOs and rights groups as a racist bill that would divide the society. All Palestinian groups in the West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip — along with the UN and the EU — have blasted the racist law, which has sparked mass protests in the Israeli-occupied territories. Several Israeli politicians, social activists, public figures and lawmakers took part in demonstrations to condemn the discriminatory nature of the measure.
After President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the “capital” of Israel on December 6, Washington lost the qualification to be the only party to supervise the political process. The Palestinians want a “collective process” to try to end the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict involving many countries. Tensions have been running high along the fence separating Gaza from the Israeli-occupied territories since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests, dubbed “The Great March of Return,” demanding the right to return for those driven out of their homeland. The Gaza clashes reached their peak on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe), which coincided this year with the US embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem. Nearly 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces ever since anti-occupation protest rallies began in the Gaza Strip on March 30. A total of 14,811 Palestinians have also sustained injuries, of whom 366 are reportedly in critical condition.
K.Q.