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Politics : Israel to U.S. : Now Deal with Syria and Iran -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (6979)	2/5/2005 6:01:02 PM
From: Emile Vidrine	Respond to of 22250

ISRAEL IS A RACIST STATE..DUHHH!! by: jomar2298 02/05/05 04:50 pm Msg: 921546 of 921561 Pines-Paz blasts 'racist' citizenship legislation By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz is drafting a bill meant to make it easier to bestow Israeli citizenship on Palestinian residents of the territories, including through family reunification. "The current law is draconian and racist," Pines-Paz told Haaretz Tuesday, saying his bill would be drafted in coordination with Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz. The minister's comments followed a Knesset vote on Monday to extend a temporary law governing citizenship and entry to Israel, which was originally meant to restrict the right of Palestinian residents of the territories to obtain Israeli citizenship through marriage to Israelis. The law also proposes imposing restrictions on granting permits to enter and spend time in Israel. The temporary law was slated to expire in May. The government decided in 2003 to initiate the legislation after it became convinced that thousands of Arab residents of the territories had received Israeli citizenship in recent years and settled in the country. During a debate at the time in the Knesset, then-deputy attorney general Menachem Mazuz argued that the proposed bill is in the national interest because the number of requests for family reunification had greatly increased over the past decade. Arab parties were vehemently opposed to the legislation this week. Balad MK Azmi Bishara said the Knesset's vote in favor of the bill underscored what he called the government's racist policy. The law has racist demographic motives and nothing more, Bishara said, and Labor's conduct - opposing the original law while it was in opposition and seeking a redrafting of the law now that it is in the government - was shameful. This is not supposed to be a tactical matter on which you compromise, but a matter of principle, he said. MK Mohammad Barakeh (Hadash-Ta'al) said this order was "conceived in sin and deserved to be thrown in the trash. All the cosmetic materials in the world won't be able to make proper such a racist regulation," he said. The Mossawa Center, a legal advocacy group dealing with Israeli Arabs' rights, expressed disappointment at the law's extension, and particularly at the Labor Party's changed position. "We will continue to sound the cry of the thousands of families harmed by the law," the advocates said.