AL-QUDS (AP) – The Zionist regime’s parliament has renewed a temporary law dating back to 2003 that Zionists from extending ‘citizenship’ or even ‘residency’ to Palestinian spouses from the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
The occupying regime claims the law, which was first enacted during a Palestinian uprising, is needed for security. Critics view it as a racist measure aimed at maintaining the regime’s Zionist nature. The law is aimed at Palestinians and does not apply to Zionists settlers in the West Bank.
The so-called citizenship law passed late on Thursday. Dozens of lawmakers in the 120-seat chamber did not cast votes on the highly divisive legislation.
The so-called Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law replaced a similar temporary order that was first enacted during the height of a Palestinian uprising in 2003 and was renewed annually until it expired last July because it did not have the support of left-wing and Arab members of the coalition.
Zionist interior minister Ayelet Shaked took measures to prevent family unification during the several months when the law languished while campaigning for its renewal.
Lawmaker Gaby Lasky of the left-wing Meretz political party called the law “a black spot on the book of laws in Israel” and wrote on Twitter that, “Meretz as a whole voted against racism.”
Mansour Abbas, the head of the United Arab List (Raam) party, also opposed the legislation.
Ayman Odeh, an Arab lawmaker, retweeted Shaked, calling it a victory for “an apartheid regime.”
Reut Shaer, a lawyer, said, “It comes off as more xenophobic or racist [than other laws] because it’s not only giving extra rights and privileges to Jewish people but also preventing certain basic rights only from the Arab population.”
She added that the law mostly affects Palestinian women and children.
It is a form of “collective punishment”, Shaer noted, because it infringes on the rights of an entire population based on the assumption they are all prone to “terrorism”.
Several rights groups have announced they will challenge the law.