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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsContradicting Its Own Ruling, Israel’s Supreme Court Legalizes ‘Apartheid’ Communities
The Israeli Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed various petitions against the Admissions Committees Law, which allows admissions committees in hundreds of communities in Israel to reject housing applicants based on their social suitability.By Amjad Iraqi
March 8, 2000 marked a unique moment in Israeli history. In a major decision, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled that the town of Katzir, which was established on state land by the Jewish Agency, could not deny the right of the Arab Kaadan family to live in the town simply on the basis that they were not Jewish. This was the first time that Palestinian citizens of Israel successfully challenged the legality of Jewish-only communities in the state, generating cautious optimism that it could set an important precedent for Palestinian rights in land and housing.
Fifteen years later, on September 17, 2014, these hopes came to an abrupt end. In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court dismissed various petitions filed by human rights groups against the Admissions Committees Law, enacted by the Knesset in 2011. The law allows admissions committees in 434 communities in the Negev and the Galilee (about 43 percent of all towns in Israel) to reject housing applicants based on their social suitability and the communities social and cultural fabric. In effect, these committees are now legally permitted to refuse residency based on any undesired identity, including Palestinian, Sephardic, African, gay, religious, secular and others.
The Admissions Committees Law is the Israeli right wings response to the Supreme Court ruling in the Kaadan case. Realizing that marginalized groups were increasingly challenging the states discriminatory practices, the Knesset under the 2009-12 Netanyahu government sought to turn Israels historical policies against these groups into law. Many Knesset members openly declared that the purpose of these laws was to subdue the threats posed by Palestinian citizens to the Jewish character of the state. The authors of the Admissions Committees Law even stated that, though deliberately written in neutral language, its main aim was to prevent Arab citizens from living with Jews.
This objective of segregation is not a new phenomenon in Israel, and has in fact been a central, ongoing practice since the states establishment in 1948. Legislation ranging from the Absentees Property Law (1950) to the Negev Individual Settlements Law (2011), along with the policies of the Jewish National Fund, Israel Land Authority and the government itself, operate with the explicit goal of securing maximum and privileged control of land for Israels Jewish citizens a process known as Judaization. This runs jointly with the states goal of minimizing and concentrating non-Jewish communities in Israel, resulting in the mass confiscation of Palestinian land and the containment of Palestinian towns through discriminatory planning, home demolitions and unequal resource allocation.
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http://972mag.com/contradicting-its-own-ruling-israels-supreme-court-legalizes-segregated-communities/96817/
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Contradicting Its Own Ruling, Israel’s Supreme Court Legalizes ‘Apartheid’ Communities (Original Post)
Purveyor
Sep 2014
OP
sadoldgirl
(3,431 posts)1. On what grounds did the court allow for this law?
I am not at all surprised, because I believe this present government wants to grab (steal ) as much land from the Westbank as it can achieve in the shortest time. So, now we have clear evidence of an apartheid regime, which cannot be called a democracy imho.
BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)2. Israel is a reprehensible apartheid regime, no doubt about it.
Their supreme court merely dotted the "i" in apartheid.
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)3. Can we please stop supporting Israel now and let it fend for itself?
This is not the kind of ally we should have.
sadoldgirl
(3,431 posts)4. I bet you that
no US politician will even mention this development.
If we are forced by contract to give them money, at least NO MORE WEAPONS!
MFM008
(19,808 posts)5. no weapons and no cash
for the new South Africa. What is going on in Israel?