The Canadian government is called to condemn this law and uphold its own Special Economic Sanctions Act.
“The Canadian government is called upon to immediately condemn Israel’s apartheid law by putting sanctions in place as is required under Canada’s own domestic law. The Canadian BDS Coalition joins with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian BDS National Committee in calling for the UN to activate its anti-apartheid laws and impose serious sanctions, on Israel such as those which were imposed on South Africa.”
On July 19, 2018, Israeli legislators approved the “Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People” bill that unambiguously defines Israel as a state that belongs exclusively to the “Jewish people.” This law was approved even though one in five Israeli citizens is an indigenous, non-Jewish Palestinian. This law makes discrimination constitutional and enshrines apartheid into Law
The Jewish Nation-State legislation was approved by 62 to 55 votes. Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset condemned the law that stipulates that “Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it.”
“It has passed a law of Jewish supremacy and told us that we will always be second-class citizens,” Ayman Odeh, the head of the Arab Joint List – an alliance of four predominantly Arab parties – said in a statement following the law’s passage.
The newly passed law also states that an undivided Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and names illegal settlements as a “national value.” This blatant disregard of United Nations resolutions is also contrary to Canadian foreign policy. The legislation is a blatant disregard for the Fourth Geneva Convention which does not allow for populations of the occupier to be moved into occupied areas. Under Article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Canada as a signatory of the Convention is responsible for ensuring that the Convention is upheld in all circumstances.
Adalah, a leading Palestinian human rights organization in Israel,said that the law “affirms the principle of apartheid in housing, land and citizenship.” Adalah indicates “this law constitutionally sanctions institutionalized discrimination.”
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) shared Najwan Berekdar, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, reaction:
As a Palestinian citizen of this state, this bill entrenches my third-class citizenship on the land where generations of my family have lived since long before the state of Israel even existed.
The Jewish-Israeli majority is loudly reminding us indigenous Palestinian citizens of Israel that we are not welcome in our own ancestral homeland. My people have always suffered from legalized racism by the state of Israel and its institutions, but this law makes our apartheid reality the law of the land like never before.
As “non-Jews” we are already not allowed to buy or rent land on 93% of the area controlled by the Israeli state, and many of our communities are declared to be “unrecognized” and bulldozed out of existence by Israeli forces. I received a racially segregated and inferior education in a school system that conspicuously privileges Jewish-Israelis.
Israel is now stripping us of any semblance of equal rights based solely on our ethno-religious identity. It’s even demoting our language from one of the state’s two official languages.
Omar Barghouti from the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) commented:
Israel has dozens of racist laws, including some which strikingly fit the UN definition of apartheid. But with the constitutional power of this Basic Law, Israel is effectively declaring itself an apartheid state and dropping its worn-out mask of democracy.
From now on, it will not just be legal to racially discriminate against the indigenous Palestinian citizens of the state. It will be constitutionally mandated and required. This should stir people, institutions and governments to take effective action to hold Israel accountable.
The Canadian BDS Coalition which includes over 25 groups from coast to coast, including national, regional and local groups, reminds the Canadian government that its own domestic legislation, the Special Economic Measures Act requires that sanctions are applied where gross and systemic human rights violations have been committed by a foreign state.
“The Canadian government is called upon to immediately condemn Israel’s apartheid law by putting sanctions in place as is required under Canada’s own domestic law. The Canadian BDS Coalition joins with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian BDS National Committee in calling for the UN to activate its anti-apartheid laws and impose serious sanctions, on Israel such as those which were imposed on South Africa.”
contact: bdscoalition@gmail.com
Release from Palestinian BNC here.
Press release on wire service here.