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The nation-state law

Aug 30,2018 - Last updated at Aug 30,2018

The Knesset’s endorsement of the so-called “nation-state law” lately, a law which establishes the concept of a “Jewish state” and consolidates, among other things, the notion of apartheid (a system of institutionalised racial segregation) in the occupied Palestinian territories, palpably violating international law, as well as international resolutions and conventions pertinent to this complex-in-demands, generation-old issue in modern human history.

“The state law” in question will not only obstruct all possible future options of a fair, just and comprehensive peace in the region, but it may as well lead to further violence and extremism, simply because it denies the Palestinian people (living under occupation) the right of existence in their homeland.

For that, I think, the international community has to shoulder legal, political and moral responsibilities and take insistent action to address this law and all its misfortunate, hapless, miserable, pathetic and piteous consequences.

The right of return and compensation for Palestinian refugees all over the world has to be stressed and bluntly raised in any peace settlement if any kind of dialog, whether political, cultural, or academic, is meant to materialise at the end of the day in accordance with the international law and the resolutions of international legitimacy thereafter, the most important of which is UN Resolution 194.

The only way to resolve the decades-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the two-state solution, which guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, within the June 4, 1967 accords, based on the relevant international legitimacy resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiatives, should there be a real will to reach a fair solution that renders dialog on the go.

A law such as this obviously denotes racism and a state based on apartheid, defining the country as the nation state of the Jewish people. Arabic, previously considered an official language, is now considered, under the new law, as a language that carries a special status! The legislation, adopted after an unrestrained Knesset session, makes Hebrew the country’s national language and defines the establishment of Jewish communities as being in the best national interest.

 The establishment of an apartheid state brings to mind white-ruled South Africa and the segregation of blacks and whites in a country that used to be torn by racism, eventually to legally erase the Palestinian history, culture, values, not to say the people themselves from their own occupied homeland. 

Occupation of the land is what makes any dialogue unrealistic and non-factual, if not absurd. A political solution to the question of Palestine would definitely allow more room for tolerance. A sound “political” compromise would essentially aid in effecting human harmony in the entire region. 

Nations should build bridges instead of walls of apartheid and racial, political, socio-cultural and linguistic segregation. For, to be sure, nations’ differences are not cultural, nor are they religious. They are political, and the political issues are at the core of the matter that at once needs to be instantly investigated and eventually reconsider the ways in which our humanity would prohibit, rather than support, the creation of any kind of segregation, it is to be sincerely hoped!

As a final word, however, it is about time our nations overcome the always rising hindrances and upheavals in the region and rebuild trust instead of apartheid, to progress with a two-state resolution and a balanced political dialog leading to an independent, secure, and recognised Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, should it be wanted to make people in the four corners of the earth believe in a cultural, political dialog.

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