23.03.2011                      17.Adar ll, 5771

Knesset:

'Nakba Bill' passes Knesset in third reading

New law would penalize local authorities, state-funded bodies for denying Israel as Jewish, democratic state; Admissions Committee Law passes.

The Knesset approved two controversial laws slammed by left-wing legislators and activists as unfairly targeting Israeli Arabs during a late plenum session on Tuesday night. But while some coalition MKs were happy to claim victory, civil rights organizations promised that at least one of the two bills would face a Supreme Court challenge.
The Abraham Fund Initiatives together with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel announced Tuesday that they intend to appeal the Admission Committees Law to the Supreme Court. “This law establishes a mechanism of ethnic segregation between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel, under the auspices of the Knesset,” complained the co-executive directors of the Abraham Fund, Amnon Be’eri-Sulitzeanu and Mohammad Darawshe, calling the law “clearly unconstitutional.”…