Region | Palestinian Territories
Israel to ban Nakba commemoration
The Israeli cabinet has approved a draft law aiming to ban marking the Nakba, the "catastrophe" the 1948 creation of Israel represented for many Palestinians, a government official said.
- Agencies
- Published: 13:45 May 25, 2009
Occupied Jerusalem: The Israeli cabinet has approved a draft law aiming to ban marking the Nakba, the "catastrophe" the 1948 creation of Israel represented for many Palestinians, a government official said.
The draft law is scheduled to be submitted for parliamentary approval next week and will propose punishment of up to three years in prison for breaches of the prohibition.
The government's legal commission brought forward the law at the instigation of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.
Israeli Arab MPs immediately slammed the proposal, branding it the act of an "apartheid regime."
The civil rights association also attacked the draft law.
"For the past year we have witnessed a worrying deterioration in Israel of the right to expression and other democratic rights," association chairman Sammy Michael said in a statement.
"Commemoration of the Nakba does not threaten Israel at all. It is a legitimate expression of the feelings of individuals and an entire people," he said.
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