Occupied Palestine | فلسطين

Israeli Knesset passes record number of racist laws

[ 24/07/2011 – 02:29 PM ]

NAZARETH, (PIC)– The preliminary reading passage of a bill placing West Bank museums under Israel law would not be the last racist law passed by the Knesset.

The draft, which was passed with a 51-9 vote in the Israeli Knesset on Wednesday, was designed ”as a step toward annexing” the West Bank, said the bill’s author MK Uri Ariel.

Just days earlier, the Knesset passed an anti-boycott law severely penalizing those who called for boycotting goods produced in West Bank settlements.

Moreover, another law was passed monitoring Palestinian rights organizations, and another concerning the Palestinians’ right of residence; and finally restrictions were tightened against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

Recently, the Knesset decided that Arab MK Hanin Zoabi would be removed from activities in the Knesset until the end of the current session. Another law was passed forbidding Nakba Day celebrations.

But the West Bank Museum Act bill would certainly not be the last racial law to be passed by the Knesset. MK Uri Ariel said before the Knesset plenum after the bill was passed: ”From now on I, together with other MKs, will take advantage of the Zionist majority in the current Knesset to make history and pass a similar law each week.”

After the reading, Arab MK Mohammed Baraka said the current Knesset leadership had marked new heights of racism in its laws, pointing out that it passed in the final readings ten racist laws in the past two years, alongside several more laws that it passed in the first and second readings.

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