The Hamas Movement has condemned the Knesset’s passing of the “Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law” as “a continuous racist crime that exposes the true face of the Israeli occupation state.”
In press remarks on Friday Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha said that such law is aimed at emptying the Palestinian land of its people especially Occupied Jerusalem through refusing to include the children of many Jerusalemite families in the civil registry.
Spokesman Taha expressed his Movement’s rejection of this racist law that violates international resolutions and covenants including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Hamas has called on the UN and all concerned organizations to take a stand against this racist law and assume their responsibilities in this regard through criminalizing the occupation state and holding it accountable for its actions.
Israel’s parliament Knesset last Thursday passed a law denying naturalization to Palestinians from the occupied West Bank or Gaza married to citizens who hold Israeli citizenship forcing thousands of Palestinian families to either emigrate or live apart.
The so-called citizenship law was passed by a vote of 45 out of 120 Knesset members.
It replaced a similar temporary order that was first passed during the height of a Palestinian uprising in 2003 and was renewed annually until it expired last July when the Knesset failed to secure a simple majority needed to extend it.
Its proponents claim the law helps ensure Israel’s security and maintains its “Jewish character.”
Some Knesset members said it was intended to prevent the right of return for Palestinian refugees who were driven from their homes or fled during the 1948 war.
“The state of Israel is Jewish and so it will remain” Simcha Rothman of the far-right Religious Zionism party said. He brought the law forward with interior minister Ayelet Shaked.
However critics say the law discriminates against Israel’s Arab minority – who are Palestinian by heritage and Israeli by citizenship – by barring them from extending citizenship and permanent residency rights to Palestinian spouses.
