sulawesigirl4
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Seems like laws dealing with marriage are the latest fashion. Any thoughts on this?
JERUSALEM - Israel's parliament passed a measure Thursday that would force Palestinians who marry Israelis to live separate lives or move out of Israel. The government said the law was necessary to prevent terror attacks, but critics called it racist.
The law, to be in effect for one year, would prevent Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip who marry Israeli Arabs from obtaining residency permits in Israel.
In pushing the measure, Israel's government cited instances in which Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza have exploited their residency permits ? which grant them freedom of movement in Israel ? to carry out terror attacks.
"This law comes to address a security issue," Cabinet Minister Gideon Ezra told Israel Radio. "Since September 2000 we have seen a significant connection, in terror attacks, between Arabs from the West Bank and Gaza and Israeli Arabs."
The vote was 53 in favor, 25 against and one abstention.
Israeli Arabs were outraged.
"We see this law as the implementation of the 'transfer' policy by the state of Israel," said Jafar Savah from Mossawa, an advocacy center for Israeli Arabs. He was referring to a plan by ultranationalist Jewish groups to persuade or force Israeli Arabs and Palestinians to leave for Arab countries.
Savah said the law was an attempt to legalize unofficial policy that has been in effect since September 2000, when Israeli-Palestinian violence broke out. He warned that the law would damage relations between Israel and its Arab minority.
Local and international human rights groups have condemned the law as racist.
"This is a racist law that decides who can live here according to racist criteria," said Yael Stein from the Israeli rights group B'tselem.
Two New York-based rights groups, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, sent letters to the parliament protesting the law and urging lawmakers not to pass it, a statement from Human Rights Watch said.
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