04/03/2010 08:19
Bethlehem - Ma'an - The Israeli parliamentary Law Committee has recently approved proposal called the Nakba bill that, if passed by the Knesset, would impose economic sanctions on the organizers of Nakba commemorations.
The term, which means catastrophe in Arabic, describes the displacement of some 750,000 Palestinians who were expelled or fled by Zionist militias during the founding years of the State of Israel.
Nakba commemorations are important events in Israel, where some 335,000 Palestinians, citizens of Israel, continue to be denied their right to return to their homes, lands and communities, and are forced to live as internally displaced persons within their own country.
"Palestinian citizens of Israel have experienced the Nakba not only in 1948 but every day since then," the human rights group Badil said in a statement on Wednesday.
"The 'ongoing Nakba' is caused by Israel's system of institutionalized racial discrimination which is composed of laws, policies and practices that have resulted in second-class citizen status of Palestinians, more land confiscation, discriminatory development planning, segregation of Palestinian communities, home demolitions and forced evictions, in order to ensure Jewish privilege and domination," it added.
Forcible displacement of Palestinian citizens continues as result, in particular in the Negev, the Galilee and in towns with a "mixed" Jewish and Palestinian population, the group said, adding that every aspect of Palestinian citizens' lives are affected by what the group termed Israel's system of institutionalized racial discrimination, including an education system that has worked to deprive Palestinian students of knowledge of their history and identity.
The proposed "Nakba bill" forbids government-supported organizations from spending money on activities that commemorate the Nakba, and will deduct as much as ten times the amount of money they spent on such activities from their budget.
"In effect, the bill requires that Palestinian citizens of Israel deny their history and identity, and identify with 'Zionist values' that negate their Palestinian national identity," Badil said. "It requires that Palestinians sanction their own historical dispossession and accept their current status as second-class citizens in the 'Jewish state' and their detachment from the Palestinian people."
The Knesset prepares to discuss the Nakba bill at a time when it has already passed another law that declares all Jews who have immigrated to Israel from Arab countries to be refugees. This law, similar to an earlier resolution passed by the US Congress, was passed in an attempt
to cloud and undermine the quest for rights-based solutions for the Palestinian refugees, critics say.
"It aims to distract from the fact that the individual and collective rights of refugees are not a matter of a trade-off but to be examined on the merits of each case," according to Badil. "As with all refugees, including Palestinian refugees, Jewish persons who are refugees under international law, must not be denied their right to return to their places of origin."
In the 62nd year of the Palestinian Nakba, Badil called upon the international community to condemn Israel's Nakba bill and to hold Israel accountable to its obligations under international law, "including its obligation to respect, protect and promote the right of all displaced Palestinians to return to their homes of origin as part of reparations."
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