Coming
in September
From AK Press
Featuring Essays by:
Edward Said, Robert Fisk, Michael Neumann, Shahid Alam, Alexander
Cockburn, Uri Avnery, Bill and Kathy Christison and More
Today's
Stories
August 13, 2003
Joanne Mariner
A Wall of Separation Through the
Heart
August 12, 2003
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Ron Jacobs
Revisionist History: the Bush Administration, Civil Rights and
Iraq
Josh Frank
Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up
Wayne Madsen
What's a Fifth Columnist? Well, Someone Like Hitchens
Ray McGovern
Relax,
It Was All a Pack of Lies
Wendy Brinker
Hubris in the White House
Website of the Day
Black
Mustache
Recent
Stories
August
11, 2003
Douglas
Valentine
Homeland Security for Whom?
Mickey
Z.
Bush's Progress
Bill
Glahn
RIAA Watch: Meet the New Bitch, Same
as the Old
Elaine
Cassel
Indicting DNA
Dr. Mohammad
Omar Farooq
Civil Liberties and Uncivil Super-Patriotism
Uri
Avnery
Who Will Save Abu Mazen?
Website
of the Day
RIAA Subpoena Clearinghouse
August
9 / 10, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
California's Glorious Recall!
Saul
Landau
Bush and King Henry
Gary
Leupp
On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism"
and the Censored 9/11 Report
Paul de
Rooij
The Parade of the Body Bags
Michael
Egan
History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy
Rob Eshelman
A Home of Our Own
Daoud
Kuttab
Life as an ID Card
Philip
Agee
Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man
Walt Brasch
Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird"
and the Rigtheous Right
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi
Josh Frank
Mean, Mean Howard Dean
Elaine
Cassel
Will the Death Penalty Ever Die?
Sean Carter
Total Recall
Poets'
Basement
Hamod, Engel, Albert
August
8, 2003
John
Chuckman
What the US Says Goes
Roberto
Barreto
Defend the Vieques 12!
Bruce Gagnon
Iraq War Emboldens Bush Space Plans
Elaine
Cassel
The Reign of John Ashcroft
Dave
Lindorff
Snoops Night Out
Website
of the Day
Zero Boy
August
7, 2003
M.
Shahid Alam
It the US a "Terrorist Magnet?"
Toni
Solo
Neo-liberal Nicaragua: a New Banana
Republic
Adam Lebowitz
Hiroshima Commemorated: the View from Japan
Hanan
Ashrawi
When the Bully Whines
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Conscience Takes a Holiday
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Lets Slip: Iraq Not Behind 9/11; No Ties to Al-Qaeda
Mike Kimaid
What's the Score?
Elaine
Cassel
The Smell of VICTORY: Ashcroft's Latest Stinkbomb
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
August 6, 2003
Steve
Higgs
Going to Jail for the Cause: It's Not
Easy Confronting King Coal
David
Krieger
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Robert
Fisk
The Ghosts of Uday and Qusay
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's War on the National Forests
Elaine
Cassel
No Fly Lists
Stan
Goff
Military Equipment and Pneumonia
Hugh Sansom
An Open Letter to Nicholas Kristof on the Nuking of Japan
August
5, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Prisoner of Ramallah: Arafat at
74
Forrest
Hylton
Terrorism and Political Trials: the
View from Bolivia
Ray
McGovern
"We Cook Estimates to Go"
David
Morse
Poindexter's Gambit
Edward
Said
Orientallism: 25 Years Later
George
W. Bush
My Darn Good Resumé
Hammond
Guthrie
It's Incremental, Watson!
Website
of the Day
National Prayer Day
August 4, 2003
Bruce
K. Gagnon
Another Peace Activist Detained by
Airport Cops: My Story
David
Lindorff
Fear-Mongering About Social Security
Mark
Zepezauer
George F. Will: Descent into Self-Parody
James
Plummer
Tracking You Through the Mail
Mickey
Z.
Marriage Insecurity from Sharon to Bush
Bruce
Jackson
News that Isn't News: How the NYT's
Pimps for the White House
August
2 / 3, 2003
Tamara
R. Piety
Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down
Francis
Boyle
My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool
David
Vest
Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side
Neve Gordon
Nightlife in Jerusalem
Uri
Avnery
Their Master's Voice:
Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus
Robert
Fisk
Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq
Jerry
Kroth
Israel, Yellowcake and the Media
Noah Leavitt
What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to
Intervene?
Saul
Landau
The Film Industry: Business and Ideology
Ron Jacobs
One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson
Thomas
Croft
In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta
Amadi Ajamu
Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader?
Poets'
Basement
Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming
August
1, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Stopping Prison Rape
Alex Coolman
Who Moved My Soap: Trivializing
Prison Rape
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Stan Goff
Injury and Decorum: The Missing Wounded in Iraq
Wayne
Madsen
Europe Unplugs from the Matrix
Robert
Fisk
Wolfowitz the Censor
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Loses Big in Puerto Rico
Website
of the Day
Stop Prisoner Rape
July
31, 2003
Ray
McGovern
The Prostitution of Intelligence
Brian
Cloughley
Wolfowitz's Operative Statement
Sheldon
Hull
The RIAA's Jihad:
The Devil's Music (Industry)
Elaine
Cassel
The Next Time You Crack a Lawyer Joke, Think of These Attorneys
Sheldon
Rampton
and John Stauber
True Lies: Propaganda and Bush's
Wars
Hammond
Guthrie
Speculation Blues
Website
of the Day
Army of One?
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
July
30, 2003
David
Lindorff
Poindexter the Terror Bookie
Marjorie
Cohn
Why Iraq and Afghanistan? It's About
the Oil
Elaine
Cassel
How Ashcroft Coerces Guilty Pleas
in Terror Cases
Zvi
Bar'el
The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War
Lisa Walsh
Thomas
Killing Mustafa Hussein: Death of a Child, Birth of a Legend?
Sean
Carter
Pat Robertson's Prayer Jihad: God, Sodomy and the Supremes
ND Jayaprakash
India and Ariel Sharon
Steve
Perry
Bush's Top 40 Lies
Standard
Schaefer
Correction about Bloomberg and Outscourcing
Website
of the Day
Bring Them Home Now!
Hot Stories
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
August
13, 2003
Israel's Apartheid
Marriage Law
A
Wall of Separation Through the Heart
By JOANNE MARINER
Imagine having to decide between your country
or your spouse. With the passage of Israel's new law on marriage
and citizenship, thousands of Israeli Arabs now face this painful
and unjust choice.
The law, passed on July 31, bars Palestinians
who marry Israelis from becoming citizens or residents of Israel.
It formalizes a policy that has been effect since September 2000,
when the current violence in Israel began.
Israelis of Palestinian origin have long
complained that they feel like second-class citizens. This new
law could be a defining step toward making their second-class
status official.
Differential Treatment
Israeli law already extends an absolute
preference to Jews over members of all other ethnic or religious
groups in obtaining Israeli citizenship. The Law of Return, together
with the country's Citizenship Law, grants automatic citizenship
to Jewish immigrants to Israel. Not only do the country's legal
rules benefit Jews over other potential immigrants, they give
Jews priority over Palestinians who fled or were driven from
the country during the 1948 and 1967 wars.
The law that was just passed, however,
goes an important step beyond the previously existing rules.
Rather than granting a preference to Jews over all other groups,
it specifically singles out Palestinians for adverse treatment.
The new law is thus facially discriminatory
against persons of a single nationality. Aside from Palestinians,
all other persons who marry Israelis are eligible for citizenship.
But the law's discriminatory character extends beyond its impact
on the  Palestinians who are barred
from obtaining citizenship. It is also discriminatory in its
impact on Israelis.
The overwhelming majority of Israeli-Palestinian
marriages are between Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin
(known as Israeli Arabs), and Palestinians living in the West
Bank and Gaza. By blocking the reunification of families split
between Israel and the occupied territories, the law will have
a devastating impact on the family life of Israeli Arabs.
Israeli Arabs who are married to Palestinians
will now have to abandon Israel if they want to live with their
families. Indeed, the prospect of their emigration may have helped
spur the law's passage. As Israelis prepare for the establishment
of a Palestinian state, nationalist legislators are anxious to
ensure the geographic separation of Jews and Palestinians.
Security or Demography?
Nearly 20 percent of Israelis are of
Palestinian origin: an estimated 1.2 million people. Given the
Zionist ideal of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, and
the demographic realities that this ideal presupposes, many Israeli
Jews have watched the growth of Israel's Palestinian population
with an anxious eye.
Until recently, the immigration of Jews
to Israel more than outweighed increases in the population of
Israelis of Palestinian origin. Benefiting from the Law of Return,
some 2.7 million Jews immigrated to Israel between 1948 and 1998.
At present, however, with the Jewish exodus from Russia having
ended, the prospect of continued large-scale Jewish immigration
to Israel seems unlikely. The demographic issues that alarm
Jewish nationalists are now increasingly apparent.
Because of such concerns, it has never
been easy for Palestians from the occupied territories to obtain
permission to join their spouses in Israel. But it was with the
outbreak of violence in Israel in September 2000 that the issuing
of residence permits to Palestinian spouses was effectively frozen.
This de facto suspension of permits was ratified by the Israeli
cabinet in May 2002, and was just now formalized into law.
Supporters of the new law, known as the
"Nationality and Entry into Israel" law, justify it
as a means to prevent terrorist attacks. According to Israeli
government minister Gideon Ezra, a member of the right-wing Likud
party, there have been some twenty lethal attacks in the last
few years involving Palestinians who had gained entry to Israel
through marriage.
Ezra also acknowledged, however, that
over 100,000 Palestinians from the West Bank had obtained Israeli
identity cards since the 1993 Oslo agreement. If the prevention
of terrorist attacks were the goal, one would expect the government
to seek out a more compelling surrogate for terrorist intent:
20 out of 100,000 people is hardly a close match. Nor is punishing
thousands of people for the crimes of a few a very fair approach
to stemming terrorism.
Discrimination and
Citizenship under International Law
Under international law, Israel is not
free to discriminate. The Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination prohibits discrimination on the
basis of race, colour, descent, and national or ethnic origin.
Although the treaty does not generally apply to countries' legal
rules on citizenship and naturalization, it does bar discrimination
against particular nationalities.
In other words, while the treaty may
not bar Israel from adopting citizenship rules that benefit a
particular group--as it did with the Law of Return -- it does
bar Israel from discriminating against Palestinians specifically.
Recognizing the Israeli law's incompatibility
with international norms, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International
sent a joint letter to the Israeli parliament in July to urge
legislators to reject it. As the letter stated, in blunt terms,
"The proposed law is discriminatory. It targets a category
of individuals purely on the basis of nationality or ethnicity,
and prevents them from living with their spouses and children."
Even Israel's most reliable supporters
appear concerned about the law. Last week, U.S. State Department
spokesman Philip Reeker was called on to comment on it. Although
Reeker seemed reluctant to use the word "discrimination,"
he acknowledged that "the new law singles out one group
for different treatment than others."
Perhaps more surprisingly, Abraham H.
Foxman, the director of the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League,
issued a statement implicitly criticizing the new law. Noting
that the law will expire after one year, Foxman said that the
ADL hopes that Israel's parliament will review the law when it
expires "and explore other methods to ensure Israel's security
needs."
Lessons from History
Jews have good reason to oppose discriminatory
citizenship laws, having historically been a target of them.
In European countries during the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, Jews and other minority populations
were often excluded from citizenship. It was only in 1791, after
the French Revolution, that France became the first European
country to extend full citizenship rights to Jews.
Adrien Jean François Duport, the
Frenchman who proposed the motion on Jewish citizenship, spoke
eloquently about the unfairness of singling out ethnic or religious
groups for adverse treatment. Discussing the right to citizenship,
he concluded: "Jews cannot alone be excluded from the enjoyment
of these rights, when pagans, Turks, Muslims, even Chinese--in
short, men of all sects--are granted them."
Last week, a legal organization for Arab
minority rights challenged the constitutionality of the new Israeli
law in a petition filed with Israel's High Court of Justice.
In considering the law, perhaps the court will affirm that Palestinians,
too, should not be excluded from rights that others enjoy.
Joanne Mariner
is a human rights attorney and regular CounterPunch contributor.
She is the author of No
Escape: Male Rape in US Prisons published by Human Rights
Watch. Her previous articles on prison rape may be found in the
FindLaw archive. She can be reached at: mariner@counterpunch.org
Weekend
Edition Features for August 9 / 10, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
California's Glorious Recall!
Saul
Landau
Bush and King Henry
Gary
Leupp
On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism"
and the Censored 9/11 Report
Paul de
Rooij
The Parade of the Body Bags
Michael
Egan
History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy
Rob Eshelman
A Home of Our Own
Daoud
Kuttab
Life as an ID Card
Philip
Agee
Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man
Walt Brasch
Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird"
and the Rigtheous Right
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi
Josh Frank
Mean, Mean Howard Dean
Elaine
Cassel
Will the Death Penalty Ever Die?
Sean Carter
Total Recall
Poets'
Basement
Hamod, Engel, Albert
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