For “Friends of Israel” read “Friends of Racism”

By Stuart Littlewood

Israel is now a self-defined apartheid state. It has been obvious since Herzl and the Zionist Congress of 1905 that the project to create a new Israel for the Jewish people by displacing the people of Palestine was a racist endeavour. Now it’s official. The “nationality” laws just passed by the Knesset reveal the sheer wickedness.

Apartheid is a crime against humanity under international convention. The Israeli regime doesn’t care; but politicians in the UK, EU and US should.

They should also deal firmly with it.

Here’s the situation, according to the recently passed laws:

1. The State of Israel
a) Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people in which the state of Israel was established.
b) The state of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, in which it actualises its natural, religious and historical right for self-determination.
c) The actualisation of the right of national self-determination in the state of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.

2. National symbols of the State of Israel
a) The name of the state is Israel.
b) The flag of the state is white, two blue stripes near the edges, and a blue Star of David in the centre.
c) The symbol of the state is the Menorah with seven branches, olive leaves on each side, and the word Israel at the bottom.
d) The national anthem of the state is “Hatikvah”
e) [Further] details concerning the issue of state symbols will be determined by law.

3. [The] unified and complete [city of] Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

4. The language of the State of Israel
a) Hebrew is the language of the state.
b) The Arabic language has a special status in the state; the regulation of the Arab language in state institutions or when facing them will be regulated by law.
c) This clause does not change the statues given to the Arabic language before the basic law was created.

5. The state will be open to Jewish immigration and to the gathering of the exiled.

6. The Diaspora
a) The state will labour to ensure the safety of sons of the Jewish people and its citizens who are in trouble and captivity due to their Jewishness or their citizenship.
b) The state will act to preserve the cultural, historical and religious legacy of the Jewish people among the Jewish diaspora.

7. The state views Jewish settlement as a national value and will labour to encourage and promote its establishment and development.

8. The Hebrew calendar is the official calendar of the state and alongside it the Julian calendar will serve as an official calendar. The usage of the Hebrew calendar and of the Julian calendar will be determined by law.

9. National Holidays
a) Independence Day is the official holiday of the state.
b) The Memorial Day for those who fell in the wars of Israel and the Memorial Day for the holocaust and heroism are official memorial days of the state.

10. Saturday and the Jewish Holidays are the official days of rest in the state. Those who are not Jewish have the right to honour their days of rest and their holidays. Details concerning these matters will be determined by law.

11. This Basic Law may not be altered except by a Basic Law that gained the approval of the majority of the Knesset members.

Laws 1 (a), (b) and (c) are the most objectionable. Note that Israel still doesn’t define its borders or even mention them. The land it has claimed is also the historical homeland of other peoples who still live there despite attempts by Jewish terror militias and discriminatory laws to evict them.

“The actualization of the right of national self-determination in the state of Israel is unique to the Jewish people,” says the new law, making it clear that national rights are denied to Palestinians still living in their Palestinian homeland swallowed up by the ever-expanding Israel project. This law is also designed to guarantee Israeli Jews continued domination if and when the regime completes its illegal annexation of the Palestinian West Bank.

There can no longer be any doubt about the regime’s racist character even among to those who until now have admired and supported it. And the old myth about Israel being the only democracy in the Middle East and sharing Western values looks more ludicrous than ever.

Law 3 has no legal foundation. Under international law East Jerusalem, including the Old City, is Palestinian.

Law 5 invites Jews from around the world, including those with no ancestral links to the Holy Land, to come and live in Israel while still denying the true indigenous people, the Palestinians displaced at gunpoint, the right to return to their homes.

Law 7 gives Jewish settlements the green light with no boundaries, again defying international law.

And, to rub salt into new and old wounds, the Arabic language is downgraded.

The Israeli regime has shot itself in the foot with one of its own nasty, expanding bullets. The pretense to democracy and the claim to share Western values are exposed as a sickening hoax. Its spiteful Jews-only fanaticism sacrifices what little support it had. Friends, stooges and pimps of the self-declared apartheid state now have nowhere to hide their shameful faces.

Civil society across nations has been handed a game-changing opportunity to reduce the evil in this world.