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JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's parliament on Thursday passed a new law that
would force Palestinians who marry Israelis to live separate lives or
move out of Israel despite charges from human rights groups and Israeli
Arabs that the law is racist.
The law would prevent Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip who
marry Israeli Arabs from obtaining residency permits in Israel.
The vote was 53 in favor, 25 against and one abstention, a spokeswoman
for the parliament said.
``We see this law as the implementation of the transfer policy by the
state of Israel,'' said Jafar Savah from Mossawa, an advocacy center for
Israeli Arabs, referring to a plan by far right groups to transfer
Israeli Arabs to other Arab countries.
Savah said the law was an attempt to legalize unofficial policy that has
been in effect since September 2000 when violence broke out and warned
that the law would damage relations between Israel and its Arab
minority.
Both local and international human rights groups have condemned the law
as racist.
``This is a racist law that decides who can live here according to
racist criteria,'' said Yael Stein from the Israeli rights group
B'tselem.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have sent letters to the
parliament protesting the law and urging lawmakers not to pass it, a
statement from Human Rights Watch said.
Israel's government contends that such a law is necessary for security
reasons, citing instances where Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza
have exploited their residency permits, granting them freedom of
movement in Israel, to carry out terror attacks.
``This law comes to address a security issue,'' Cabinet Minister Gideon
Ezra told Israel Radio. ``Since September 2000 we have seen a
significant connection, in terror attacks, between Arabs from the West
Bank and Gaza and Israeli Arabs,'' Ezra said.
Israel and the Palestinians have been locked in a bloody conflict for 33
months, though a cease-fire declared by the Palestinians on June 29 has
significantly reduced violence.
The law, which passed its first reading on June 18, would force newly
married couples to choose between living in the Palestinian areas or
living separately and would be in effect for a year when the parliament
must renew it.
It is not uncommon for members of Israel's 1 million strong Arab
community to marry residents of the Palestinian areas, and this was one
of the only ways a Palestinian could be eligible for an Israeli
residency permit.
Ezra told the radio that since 1993 over 100,000 Palestinians have
obtained Israeli permits in this manner. ``It has grown out of
control,'' he said.
Stein from B'tselem said there have been only 20 cases from these
100,000 people who have been involved in terror.
``I am not taking these attacks lightly but this is an extreme solution
to a marginal phenomenon,'' Stein said.
Ezra turned aside charges that the law was racist, saying ``I agree that
anyone who kills Jews just because they are Jewish is a racist.''
Rights groups accused Israel of trying to rush the bill through
parliament before it goes into recess on August 3.
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