If there was any notion that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not want to create a racist state only for Jews and was interested in administering a pluralist society, that veneer is now completely and utterly tarnished when his cabinet gave its approval to legislation defining Israel as the national homeland for Jewish people.
The measure is so racist and bigoted that it passed his cabinet 14-6 — meaning that a third of his own right-wing coalition of cronies feels that the declaration of a Jewish state is too extreme even for their own Zionist politics. And the declaration merely serves to fan the flames of hatred against Muslims and Christians living in the Occupied Territories, Occupied Jerusalem and within Israel itself.
Not intent enough that this declaration was antagonistic against non-Jews, Netanyahu has ordered the drafting of legislation that would allow for the revocation of residency papers for Occupied Jerusalem of those who would dare protest against his illegal and immoral government.
The reality is that Arabs from 1948 areas, along with those living in Occupied Jerusalem, would be virtually illegal in their own lands, with a residency paper that can be withdrawn on the whim of an Israeli official. Bad enough now that Israel claims lands within Occupied Jerusalem to build luxury homes for colonists, the Palestinian people who now have no right of citizenship would be deprived of their right to reside in their own streets.
Netanyahu and his allies are intent on creating a fortified Jewish state where minorities are either banished to the east of the River Jordan or imprisoned indefinitely without charge and without full and fair judicial process. And for those who are not jailed, they can be deprived of residency papers, effectively depriving them of government services and benefits. If they protest, their homes will be demolished to make way for new colonies. If this is not bigotry at its most basic, then all but Netanyahu are mistaken.
