New Israeli govt dealt blow in controversial citizenship vote

Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked gives a statement at the Knesset (Parliament) in Jerusalem on July 5, 2021. (AFP)
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Updated 07 July 2021
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New Israeli govt dealt blow in controversial citizenship vote

  • Officials will find new ways to stop residency, citizenship through marriage for Palestinians: Experts

AMMAN: Israel’s Knesset early on Tuesday failed to renew a temporary law that bars Arab citizens from extending citizenship or residency rights to spouses from the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

The 59-59 vote in parliament marked a major setback for Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law was enacted as a temporary measure in 2003, at the height of the Second Intifada.

Bennett had hoped to find a compromise between hard line and moderate factions within his coalition. But he suffered a stinging defeat in a vote he reportedly described as “a referendum on the new government.”

The law is now set to expire at midnight on Tuesday.

However, experts warm that Israeli security officials will find new ways of keeping Palestinians from obtaining residency or citizenship through marriage.

Jafar Farah, head of the Mossawa Center in Haifa, told Arab News that the defeat of the law came as a result of “advocacy, protests by families and hard work by many.”

Farah said: “We and the affected families organized dozens of meetings with parliamentarians, the media and other groups to explain the difficulties that married families have to go through to be together.”

He called on parliamentarians to “continue the struggle” until an appropriate family reunification law is enacted.

“The Israeli policy allows any Jew in the world to get permanent citizenship once they arrive at the airport, while at the same time, it perpetuates the division of Palestinian families using security and demographics excuses,” Farah said.

Um Yasmin, a Palestinian mother from Jerusalem who married a Palestinian from Bethlehem, told Arab News that she hopes that the absence of the law will help her family lead a normal life.

“We have been forced to have two homes in order not to lose our right to live in Jerusalem,” she said.

Wadie Abu Nassar, director of the Haifa-based International Center for Consultations, told Arab News that the failure of the coalition in the Knesset indicates a growing leadership crisis in Israel.

“Naftali Bennett and Mansour Abbas (leader of the United Arab List) showed that they are unable to control their own parties and mind the gaps among the components of the coalition, which they created just a few weeks ago,” he said.

But Abu Nassar added that he was unsure whether the absence of this law will affect separated families.

“While 1,600 Palestinian families, who were supposed to get some quick easing in the process of unification — as part of the deal between Israel’s interior minister and Mansour Abbas — will not get immediate relief, Israel’s secret service would have to work a lot to examine case by case instead of hiding behind the law for declining requests for family unifications,” he said.

Jessica Montell, director of HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organization based in Jerusalem, told Arab News that the majority of those affected by the law are Palestinian residents of Jerusalem.

“About 70 percent of the persons affected by this law are residents of East Jerusalem and not Israeli citizens. In fact, the law disproportionately harms the weakest population: Women from poor families with few tools to navigate this hostile bureaucracy,” she said.

Shawan Jabarin, director of Al-Haq Human rights organization, told Arab News that the law has always had racist underpinnings.

He said: “Israel’s racist policies are being exposed bit by bit. This was a political law that was hiding behind security cover. Palestinian families have suffered for 18 years. Isn’t that enough?”

The Knesset enacted the law in July 2003. It forbids Israelis married to, or who will marry in the future, residents of the occupied territories from living in Israel with their spouses.

Israelis married to foreign nationals who are not residents of the occupied territories are still allowed to submit requests for family unification on their behalf.

The controversial law received strong international condemnation at the time of its introduction.

The Geneva-based Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination unanimously approved in August 2003 a resolution saying the Israeli law violated an international human rights treaty.

 


Explosion occurs at Turkish oil refinery during drills, but no casualties are reported

Updated 46 sec ago
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Explosion occurs at Turkish oil refinery during drills, but no casualties are reported

ANKARA: An explosion occurred at an oil refinery in northwestern Turkey on Tuesday, an official said, adding the situation was “under control” and there were no reports of any casualties.
Mayor Tahir Buyukakin told private NTV television that the blast occurred at the Turkish Petroleum Refineries company, Tupras, in Izmit provicince during “routine drills.”
A fire was quickly brought under control by the privately owned company’s own emergency crews and no request for help was made, he said.
Video footage from the site showed smoke rising from the refinery.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.

Lebanon media reports strike on residential building south of Beirut

Updated 9 sec ago
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Lebanon media reports strike on residential building south of Beirut

BEIRUT: Lebanese state media reported a strike on an apartment in the Jiyeh coastal area south of Beirut on Tuesday, more than a month into the Israel-Hezbollah war.
The official National News Agency said “a raid targeted a residential apartment in a building in the town of Jiyeh,” where an AFP correspondent said a large plume of grey smoke covered the area.


Iran says killed eight militants since attack on police in province bordering Pakistan

Updated 38 min 40 sec ago
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Iran says killed eight militants since attack on police in province bordering Pakistan

  • Militants from the Jaish Al-Adl group killed 10 police officers during a raid in Sistan-Baluchistan province on October 26
  • Sistan-Baluchistan, which straddles border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of Iran’s most impoverished provinces

TEHRAN: Iran’s military has killed eight militants in an operation in the restive southeast since a deadly attack last month on a police station, state media reported Tuesday.
Militants from the Pakistan-based Jaish Al-Adl group killed 10 police officers during a raid on October 26 in Sistan-Baluchistan province — one of the deadliest attacks in the region in recent months.
Sistan-Baluchistan, which straddles the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of Iran’s most impoverished provinces.
It has long been a flashpoint for cross-border attacks by separatists and extremists, opposed to the authorities in Iran.
Revolutionary Guards commander Ahmad Shafahi said “a total of eight terrorists have been killed” since the beginning of operations in the province, according to the official IRNA news agency on Tuesday.
“Fourteen other terrorists have been arrested,” including key figures involved in the attack, he said, adding security forces seized weapons and ammunition.
Shortly after the attack in Taftan county, some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran, a report on the Tasnim news agency said four militants had been killed and four others arrested.
Late on Monday, IRNA quoted Guards ground forces commander Mohammad Pakpour as saying the attackers “were not Iranian,” though he did not specify their nationalities.
In early October, at least six people including police officers were killed in two separate attacks in the province.
Jaish Al-Adl said on Telegram they had carried out the attacks.
Formed in 2012 by Baluch separatists, the group is proscribed as a “terrorist organization” by both Iran and the United States.
 
 


Over 100 patients to be evacuated from Gaza, WHO says

Updated 05 November 2024
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Over 100 patients to be evacuated from Gaza, WHO says

  • The patients will travel in a large convoy on Wednesday via the Kerem Shalom crossing

GENEVA: More than 100 patients including children suffering from trauma injuries and chronic diseases will be evacuated from Gaza on Wednesday in a rare transfer out of the war-ravaged enclave, a World Health Organization official said.
“These are ad hoc measures. What we have requested repeatedly is a sustained medevac (medical evacuation) outside of Gaza,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, adding that 12,000 people were awaiting transfer.
The patients will travel in a large convoy on Wednesday via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel before flying to the United Arab Emirates, he added, and then a portion will travel to Romania.


Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions

Updated 05 November 2024
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Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions

  • In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security

DUBAI: Two French citizens detained in Iran since May 2022 are in good health and being held in good detention conditions, Iran’s judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said on Tuesday, according to state media.
Last month, France’s foreign ministry said the conditions that three of its nationals were being held in by Iran were unacceptable.
“According to the relevant authorities, these two people have good conditions in the detention center and are in good health, so any claim regarding their conditions being abnormal is rejected,” Jahangir said.
The spokesperson was referring to Cecile Koehler and Jacques Paris, who he said were arrested on charges of espionage and will have their next court hearing on Nov. 24.
Jahangir did not mention the third French national detained in Iran. French media have disclosed only his first name, Olivier.
In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security.
Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests.