Nightslantern Suppressed News / #Israel / #Palestine

6.8.18

    http://nightslantern.ca/2018bulletin.htm#july20isr

July 20, 2018

      Israel / Palestine: On July 19, 2018 Israel's Parliament passed a Nation State law, a "basic law" which has the force of a constitutional amendment, officially declaring Israel the national home of Jewish people. In this instance, "Israel" refers to all of historical Palestine. In a country of under 9 million people about 6 and a half million are Jews, nearly 2 million Arabs and less than half a million Christians. Under the new law Arabic is no longer an official language. Only Jews have the right to national self-determination. The state plans to support Jews and Jewish culture in the Diaspora. Jewish-only settlement is encouraged. Jerusalem is claimed as Israel's capital. These are among other points enhancing the assumptions of the right-wing government's cultural perspective and world view. This basic law neglects minority rights and understands Israel's Arab and Christian peoples as second class citizens. The Zionist government is officially making Israel a Jewish rather than a democratic state. It is also firming ties with Europe's right-wing governments. This comes at a time when Israeli Defense Forces have shown a disregard for human life at Israel's border with Gaza *, the rights of civilians are violated, and the population of Gaza is being intentionally made to suffer to the point of eventual destruction *. This law presents a genocide warning for non-Jews living under the authority of Israel. Is a country declaring itself the homeland of only one racial, ethnic, or religious group, exclusively, furthering a genocide against a minority group with valid historical claims to the same land? Is the law's intention the destruction of Palestine and Palestinians as a national group?     Partial sources online: "Israel Approves Jewish Nation-State Law in Narrow Vote: Bill aims to give Jewish status priority over democracy," Jason Ditz, July 18, 2018, antiwar.com; "Israeli Law Declares the Country the ‘Nation-State of the Jewish People’," David M. Halbfinger and Isabel Kershner, July 19, 2018, The New York Times; "An unlikely union: Israel and the European far right," Ramzy Baroud & Romana Rubeo, July 17, 2018, Al Jazeera; "New Law Declares Israel a Jewish Nation-State with Hebrew as Sole National Language," July 19, 2019, Democracy Now!; "Demographics of Israel," current, Wikipedia; "Israel Approves Nationality 'Apartheid' Law," July 19, 2018, Telesur.