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Palestinians in Israel protest indictments over attacker's death
Jonathan Cook,
The Electronic Intifada,
10 June 2009
The decision to prosecute 12 Israeli Arabs over what the local media have described as the "lynching" of an Israeli soldier on a bus shortly after he shot dead the driver and three passengers has been greeted with outrage from the country's Arab minority. The inhabitants of Shefa'amr, one of the largest Arab towns in the Galilee region and the location of the attack, are expected to stage a one-day strike today in protest against the indictments.
Seven of the 12 face charges of attempted murder. Jafar Farah, the head of Mossawa, an Arab political lobbying group, said the indictments, which follow a series of about-turns by state prosecutors, reflected "the current harsher political climate" for the Arab minority, one-fifth of the country's population. A right-wing government, established this year, includes the party of Avigdor Lieberman, which is openly hostile to Arabs.
electronicintifada.net...
Originally posted by masonwatcher
It seems that there is one law for Israelis and another for the Palestinians they rule. You know now why the Palestinians fight for freedom.
I mean, they color your license plates by race/religion!!!
Originally posted by intrepid
Originally posted by masonwatcher
It seems that there is one law for Israelis and another for the Palestinians they rule. You know now why the Palestinians fight for freedom.
Unless I read this wrong they aren't Palistinians but Arab Israeli's.
Originally posted by masonwatcher
The Arabs in Israel are Palestinians and they are treated as third class citizens if lucky. They carry special ID and assigned to villages and towns they live in.
The Arabs in Israel are Palestinians and they are treated as third class citizens if lucky.
Israel never sought to assimilate or integrate the Palestinian population, treating them as second-class citizens and excluding them from public life and the public sphere. The state practiced systematic and institutionalized discrimination in all areas, such as land dispossession and allocation, education, language, economics, culture, and political participation.
Successive Israeli governments maintained tight control over the community, attempting to suppress Palestinian/Arab identity and to divide the community within itself. To that end, Palestinians are not defined by the state as a national minority despite UN Resolution 181 calling for such; rather they are referred to as "Israeli Arabs," "non-Jews," or by religious affiliation.
www.adalah.org...
Some aspects of Israeli democracy are at odds with core American values. Unlike the US, where people are supposed to enjoy equal rights irrespective of race, religion or ethnicity, Israel was explicitly founded as a Jewish state and citizenship is based on the principle of blood kinship. Given this, it is not surprising that its 1.3 million Arabs are treated as second-class citizens, or that a recent Israeli government commission found that Israel behaves in a ‘neglectful and discriminatory’ manner towards them. Its democratic status is also undermined by its refusal to grant the Palestinians a viable state of their own or full political rights.
www.lrb.co.uk...
Israeli law already extends an absolute preference to Jews, over members of all other ethnic or religious groups, in obtaining Israeli citizenship. The Law of Return, together with the country’s Citizenship Law, grants automatic citizenship to Jewish immigrants to Israel. Not only do the country’s legal rules benefit Jews over other potential immigrants, they give Jews priority over Palestinians who fled or were driven from the country during the 1948 and 1967 wars.
The law that was just passed, however, goes an important step beyond the previously existing rules. Rather than granting a preference to Jews over all other groups, it specifically singles out Palestinians for adverse treatment.
The overwhelming majority of Israeli-Palestinian marriages are between Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin (known as Israeli Arabs), and Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. By blocking the reunification of families split between Israel and the occupied territories, the law will have a devastating impact on the family life of Israeli Arabs.
Israeli Arabs who are married to Palestinians will now have to abandon Israel if they want to live with their families. Indeed, the prospect of their emigration may have helped spur the law’s passage. As Israelis prepare for the establishment of a Palestinian state, nationalist legislators are anxious to ensure the geographic separation of Jews and Palestinians.
writ.news.findlaw.com...
In Israel, there are more than 50 villages inhabited by Palestinians that have been there for centuries. Israel has decreed these "unrecognized villages" and notified the families that their homes will be demolished because they were "built illegally." Thousands of homes of Palestinians who are Israeli citizens have been destroyed. Although these villagers are citizens of Israel, they receive no state services such as electricity, running water, sewer, access roads, health or educational facilities.
Similarly, thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel have been decreed "present absentees," Israel's Orwellian phrase for Palestinians whose land and homes Israel has confiscated for Jewish-only habitation.
www.oregonlive.com...
According to the 2004 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Israel and the Occupied Territories, the Israeli government had done "little to reduce institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against the country's Arab citizens."[181]
The 2004 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices[181] notes that:
"Approximately 93 percent of land in the country was public domain, including that owned by the state and some 12.5 percent owned by the Jewish National Fund (JNF). All public land by law may only be leased, not sold. The JNF's statutes prohibit the sale or lease of land to non-Jews. In October, civil rights groups petitioned the High Court of Justice claiming that a bid announcement by the Israel Land Administration (ILA) involving JNF land was discriminatory in that it banned Arabs from bidding."
"Israeli-Arab advocacy organizations have challenged the Government's policy of demolishing illegal buildings in the Arab sector, and claimed that the Government was more restrictive in issuing building permits in Arab communities than in Jewish communities, thereby not accommodating natural growth."
"In June, the Supreme Court ruled that omitting Arab towns from specific government social and economic plans is discriminatory. This judgment builds on previous assessments of disadvantages suffered by Arab Israelis."
"Israeli-Arab organizations have challenged as discriminatory the 1996 "Master Plan for the Northern Areas of Israel," which listed as priority goals increasing the Galilee's Jewish population and blocking the territorial contiguity of Arab towns."
"Israeli Arabs were not required to perform mandatory military service and, in practice, only a small percentage of Israeli Arabs served in the military. Those who did not serve in the army had less access than other citizens to social and economic benefits for which military service was a prerequisite or an advantage, such as housing, new-household subsidies, and employment, especially government or security-related industrial employment. The Ivri Committee on National Service has issued official recommendations to the Government that Israel Arabs not be compelled to perform national or "civic" service, but be afforded an opportunity to perform such service".
"According to a 2003 Haifa University study, a tendency existed to impose heavier prison terms to Arab citizens than to Jewish citizens. Human rights advocates claimed that Arab citizens were more likely to be convicted of murder and to have been denied bail."
"The Orr Commission of Inquiry's report [...] stated that the 'Government handling of the Arab sector has been primarily neglectful and discriminatory,' that the Government 'did not show sufficient sensitivity to the needs of the Arab population, and did not take enough action to allocate state resources in an equal manner.' As a result, 'serious distress prevailed in the Arab sector in various areas. Evidence of distress included poverty, unemployment, a shortage of land, serious problems in the education system, and substantially defective infrastructure.'"
The 2007 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices[183] notes that:
"According to a 2005 study at Hebrew University, three times more money was invested in education of Jewish children as in Arab children."
Human Rights Watch has charged that cuts in veteran benefits and child allowances based on parents' military service discriminate against Arab children: "The cuts will also affect the children of Jewish ultra-orthodox parents who do not serve in the military, but they are eligible for extra subsidies, including educational supplements, not available to Palestinian Arab children."[184]
en.wikipedia.org...
Originally posted by FlyersFan
reply to post by masonwatcher
Interesting site you quote. Electronic Intifada is it's name.
Well Masonwatcher - Looking at the home page of your source, I've just gotta wonder how accurate it's information is. Got any sources, other than that propaganda site, that gives the information? If so, please post it so we can all read about it. Thank you.
As a verb intifada means "to be shaken, to wake up".
As a noun it means "shudder, awakening, uprising", with the implication of "a shaking off" -- referring to the process of shaking off sleep or shaking off the dust from one's feet. In the context of 37 years of Israeli military occupation (as of 2004), Intifada represents a 'shaking off' of the chains of occupation.
electronicintifada.net...
Arabs in Israel have equal voting rights; in fact, it is one of the few places in the Middle East where Arab women may vote. Arabs currently hold 8 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
Originally posted by masonwatcher
Are you sure about what you are saying or are you just aping standard misinformation. Actually Israel is in direct control of millions of Palestinians. Can you say Palestinian? Yet none of them can vote let a lone return to their homes from refugee camps.