Palestinians from the 1948 areas under Israeli rule have always been discriminated against. Ever since the establishment of Israel that year, no less than 50 discriminatory laws were passed to restrict their lives despite the fact that they became Israeli citizens.

Laws were passed to restrict their political rights, access to the land, the state budget and living accommodations, as they were unable to live in Jewish-only areas. These Palestinians have been barely tolerated, but clearly targeted on purely ethnic and religious grounds.

The latest suspension bill, approved by the Israeli Knesset in a first reading on Monday, aims to strike out members and take away their parliamentary privilege and immunity. It is a pernicious piece of legislation to curtail their freedom and bring their thought processes in line with official Likudist thinking that dominates the Israeli state.

The bill is aimed at the 17 Arab Israeli members of the Knesset in particular, in the current 120-member parliament. Currently under fire are three Arab members, Haneen Al Zoabi, Basel Gattas and Jamal Zahalka. The bill is designed to restrict their political activity within the confines of Israel-related issues and separate them from their Palestinian brethrens in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The latest case in point is being blown out of proportion in seeking to mediate between the government and the families of 10 Palestinians killed and held by the Israeli police since last December. Wouldn’t handing the bodies over to their families for a final burial in respect of the dead be the right thing to do? Isn’t four months in an Israeli morgue long enough regardless of whatever kind of alleged terror activities they may have been involved in? Shouldn’t the dead be respected and buried in line with even Jewish thinking and precepts?

The bill that went through the Knesset, and was initiated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is the latest in the case of the three Arab Knesset members, who were already slapped on the wrist by the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee for visiting the families of those who were shot and killed by the Israeli army. You would think the action of the committee to suspend them for several months from parliamentary work would be sufficient.

But clearly, Netanyahu, ever the political opportunist, wants a Knesset that stifles the opposition and is filled with “yes men”. This is in line with his thinking. He wants to turn the screws first of all on Arab members of the Knesset and make them less interested in Arab issues, and then Jewish parliamentarians who may challenge his rule.

The state’s top political seat, the presidency — now occupied by Likud-diehard Reuven Rivlin — believes the bill goes against the logic of what Israel is today, criticising it as dangerous and one that “reflects a problematic understanding of what democracy is all about”, and “harms freedom of speech”.

Many Jewish and Leftist members are also against the bill and see it as an attack on them as well. The bill will widen the scope for constitutional change in the country’s basic law of governance and political rule. Worst still, it is the 1.6 million Palestinians from the 1948 areas who will be at the back end of discriminatory laws.

What Netanyahu fails to understand is if the Arab members continue to be restricted, the Palestinian communities in Israel are likely to become more alienated and may resort to extremist tactics in their resolve to ensure their rights in Israeli society — rights that have been trampled over ever since Israel was created in 1948.

To make an official imprint, Israel issued in 1950 an Absentee Landlord Property Law, which led to land grabs by Israelis, regardless of whether people lived there or not, and was enforced by a Land Acquisition Law of 1953, which took land from 349 Palestinian towns and villages. In 2003, a family unification law was passed that prohibited Palestinians from the 1948 areas from being united with their Palestinian spouses in the West Bank and Gaza. There is also a law that gives the right to Jewish local communities to refuse Palestinians permission to live within their vicinity in Israel. Lastly, there is what was dubbed as the Naqba Law of 2011, restricting funds to those associations that commemorate the day Palestine was lost and Israel was established.

Regardless of this, Palestinians from the 1948 areas have long participated in the Israeli political system since the early 1950s, but never quite made it. Instead, they’ve always been considered as a minority and looked upon with suspicion because of their ethnicity and religion. They have been under martial law until 1966 — harassed by the Israeli establishment through administrative detentions and expulsions.

The Suspension Bill may be seen as a reminder to Palestinians from the 1948 areas and their parliamentary members that they are foreigners in Israel. The Arab members of the Knesset threatened to resign if the bill became a law. But resignation would only leave the door wide open for Netanyahu and his government to do as they will.

For Netanyahu, their resignation would also be an embarrassment, because at a stroke, they would be disenfranchised, calling into question the true nature of so-called Israeli democracy.

Marwan Asmar is a commentator based in Amman. He has long worked in journalism and has a PhD in Political Science from Leeds University in the UK.