On Islam, March 29 2011

Thirty seven Knesset Members voted in favor of the bill while only 11 opposed.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM – A new law passed by the Israeli Knesset enabling the court system to revoke citizenship of anyone convicted of espionage or helping the enemy has triggered uproar among Israeli rights activists as targeting Israeli-Arab minority.

“It is very clearly aimed at Israel’s Arab citizens, and sends them a message that their citizenship is not guaranteed,” Ronit Sela, spokeswoman of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Tuesday, March 29.

“MKs [Knesset members] have made it clear that even though the wording of the bill is broad,” she added blasting the bill as ‘racist’.

The bill was initiated by two MKs David Rotem and Robert Ilatov from the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Thirty seven Knesset Members voted in favor of the bill while only 11 opposed.

The new legislation empowers the Israeli court system to revoke the citizenship of anyone convicted on charges of “terrorism,” espionage, helping the enemy during time of war or any other act which harms national sovereignty.

A similar procedure for revoking citizenship already exists under the 1952 Nationality Law that could only be done through the interior ministry.

Sela added that the move would mainly affect the Palestinian residents in occupied East Jerusalem (Al-Quds), making it easier for Israeli authorities to kick them out from their homes.

“Before, it was a separate process handled by the interior ministry, but now, if the court has convicted someone, they can revoke citizenship at the same time as handing down sentence,” she said.

The new law is a part of Lieberman’s “no loyalty, no citizenship” campaign which he pushed during the run up to the 2009 elections, regarded as targeting Israel’s Arab minority.

“Without loyalty, there can be no citizenship,” Lieberman said just minutes after the bill was passed, in comments reported by the Jerusalem Post.

“Any person who harms the country cannot enjoy the benefits of citizenship and its fruit.”

“Fascism”

The new amendment to Citizenship Act was also blasted by Arab MKs as leading Israel towards fascism.

“It is possible that the overuse of the word leaves people unaffected. There is a kind of acceptance, Hadash Chairman MK Mohammad Barakeh said, Yediot Ahronot reported late on Monday, March 28.

“All of the offenses that appear in the amendment already have penalties set by law.”

MK Hanin Zoabi for Balad party agreed.

“There is a clear fascist trend. What is happening today shouldn’t surprise any of us. Someone has already constructed the political, mental and ideological infrastructure for revoking citizenship,” she said.

“Someone thinks that you can jump from democracy to fascism in one go?”

MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad) also attacked what he called “racial effrontery” offered by the Knesset.

“Who do you see as a loyal citizen? A loyal citizen is someone who gives up their rights. As soon as I demand my rights I’m no longer a loyal citizen,” Zahalka said.

“International law states that a man cannot be left without citizenship. Even when a person is executed in the US – his citizenship is not revoked.

“Now a party comes along that re-invents the racist wheel and puts revoking citizenships in the law book.”

Israeli Arabs, who make up nearly a fifth of the population, are descendants of those who stayed when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes by Zionist gangs in1948, when Israel was founded on the rubble of Palestine.

Relations between Israel’s Jews and Arabs have long been difficult, with Arabs complaining of discrimination.

A recent Israel Democracy Institute poll found that nearly half of Jewish Israelis don’t want to live next door to Arabs, foreigners or mentally ill.

Last December, dozens of Jewish rabbis issued an edict against renting or selling real estate to non-Jews, particularly Arab citizens.

Earlier on October, the Israeli government approved an amendment to Israel’s Citizenship Act that would require all non-Jews taking Israeli citizenship to pledge loyalty to the “Jewish and democratic state of Israel”.