Joint List Denounces Terrorism Law As Discriminatory Against Terrorists

“An act of blatant discrimination against the population of terrorists living under Israeli rule.”

Jerusalem, June 16 – Members of the Joint Arab List alliance in the Knesset condemned yesterday’s passage of a law toughening penalties for people convicted of involvement in terrorism, saying the legislation unfairly singles out terrorists for harsh treatment.

The bill passed its second and third readings on Wednesday to become law, winning a 57-16 majority in the 120-seat parliament. Among the law’s provisions is a clause that mandates thirty years of a life imprisonment sentence for murder be served before a terrorism convict is eligible for release or parole, and levies stiffer penalties than the previous law against people who abet terrorist activities or incite to terrorism. The law updated or replaced a number of statutes that had been in force since the days of the British Mandate of Palestine, before the establishment of Israel in 1948, a fact that the Arab MKs also constituted a discriminatory slap in the face to anyone who believes Israel should not have sovereignty.

“This shameful law targets only one segment of the population,” claimed MK Basel Ghattas of Balad, one of four parties in the Joint List. “It is an act of blatant discrimination against the population of terrorists living under Israeli rule, and yet another example of the way in which this racist regime undermines the values it claims to hold dear.”

Ra’am-Ta’al legislator MK Ahmad Tibi added that the discriminatory character of the law extends beyond its harsher treatment of terrorists than of, say, vandals. “People who are imprisoned in Israeli jails have access to superior health care and free post-secondary education,” he noted. “That puts them, eventually, in the unfair position of greater potential  exposure to ideas that contradict the Palestinian narrative of pure victimhood, a danger that people outside the prisons have greater capacity to avoid. This law is clearly meant to fray the fragile fabric of Palestinian solidarity and virtue, which is racist.”

The terrorism law has put other Opposition figures in a tough position. While the current Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked has shepherded the bill through Knesset and committee, the legislative proposal began as an initiative of then-Minister-of-Justice Tzipi Livni during the previous Netanyahu administration, whose Hatnua Party has formed alliance with Labor. As a result, Livni has been limited in her use of the law as a vehicle for criticizing the government, instead being forced to quibble with specific provisions that have been modified since her tenure. Opposition leader and Labor Party chief Isaac Herzog, Livni ‘s partner in the Zionist Union alliance, has consequently been similarly reticent.