Israeli Supreme Court Upholds Apartheid Rule
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Repressive Israeli rule way exceeds the worst of South African apartheid. The Occupied Territories are virtual battlegrounds, Gaza most of all.
Palestinians are terrorized daily by Israeli soldiers and police, along with PA security forces, acting as the Jewish state’s enforcer against their own people.
Time and again, Israel’s Supreme Court upholds apartheid ruthlessness in its rulings – judicial fairness abandoned, fundamental Palestinian rights affirmed under international law ignored.
In May, Supreme Court justices rejected petitions by human rights groups, ruling for Israeli soldiers to use live fire and other terrorist tactics against peaceful Palestinian demonstrators.
At the time, the Adalah and Al Mezan human rights groups slammed the ruling in a joint statement, saying justices “completely ignored the broad factual basis presented to it by the petitioners, which includes multiple testimonies of wounded and reports of international organizations involved in documenting the killing and wounding of unarmed protesters in Gaza.”
In 2015, the High Court rejected the right of free expression, supporting Israel’s repressive 2011 Anti-Boycott Law.
It criminalizes legitimate calls for boycotting the Jewish state, permitting ruling regimes to impose harsh punishments on individuals, groups, and institutions, calling for or participating in boycott activities.
Human rights groups call the law a “shut mouths” measure, aiming to silence legitimate criticism, Israel’s High Court upholding what no just societies and their courts would tolerate – what America’s First Amendment prohibits.
At the time, Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher said “(t)his arbitrary law harms Palestinians more than others because they are on the frontlines of struggling against the Occupation and the violation of the human rights of their people under Occupation in the West Bank, (East Jerusalem), and Gaza.”
In 2014, Israel’s Supreme Court upheld the so-called Admissions Committee Law, permitting Negev and Galilee towns to ban Israeli Arab citizens, claiming they’re “unsuitable” for Jewish communities.
In response, an Adalah press release said “(t)his law is one of the most racist pieces of legislation enacted in recent years, the primary objective of which is to marginalize Arab citizens and prevent them from accessing housing on ‘state land’ in many communities. The court’s decision upholds one of the most dangerous laws in Israel.”
Last Thursday, Israeli Supreme Court justices approved the eviction of 40 East Jerusalem families from their East Jerusalem Sheikh Jarrah homes.
The neighborhood is designated for Jews-only residency as part of the Netanyahu regime’s E1 Jerusalem plan, wanting the international city entirely Judaized.
The High Court ruling jeopardizes the right of the neighborhood’s 3,000 residents to remain in their homes. Evicting 40 Palestinian families could be prelude to dispossessing all others in Sheikh Jarrah.
Israel’s Land Fund’s Arieh King admitted that the group’s plan is to displace all neighborhood Palestinian residents, permitting it exclusively for Jews.
Families ordered displaced by Israel’s High Court have lived in Sheikh Jarrah since 1956 on their own land.
An Israeli district court refused to hear their case. Israel’s Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling, Justice Barak-Erez saying:
“We cannot intervene in the findings of fact by the district court. According to the laws on the statute of limitations and the factual findings, we have no tools to intervene in the decision.”
The aggrieved Palestinians refused to withdraw their appeal, asking for a High Court ruling – delivered against them on Thursday.
Justice was again denied, the way it nearly always is against fundamental Palestinian rights throughout the Territories.
That’s what apartheid rule is all about!
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