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Palestinian medics lift the body of a Palestinian man in Jenin. (Reuters)
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JENIN,
West Bank, May 14, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) –
Israeli occupation forces gunned down on Sunday, May 14, five
Palestinians in the Jenin area of the occupied West Bank, while the
supreme court upheld a controversial law barring Palestinians from
living with spouses and children in Israel.
One
of the victims was Ali Jabarin, a 21-year-old intelligence officer,
while four of his colleagues were wounded at their Jenin headquarters,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Two
brothers, at least one of whom was said to be a member of Islamic
Jihad, were also shot dead in Qabatiya, south of Jenin.
Thair
Hanaisha was shot by Israeli soldiers as they entered the town to
detain members of the resistance group, witnesses said.
His
brother, Mejahid, was shot and killed as he tried to help his dying
brother.
Medics
also said that 21-year-old Jihad Asaf Iqmel had been shot dead by
troops after he threw stones at the forces in Qabatiya.
Palestinian
security sources also said Israeli special forces had tried to
assassinate Mahmoud Saadi, the overall leader of Jihad in the Jenin
area, by shooting at his vehicle in the village of Birqin.
Saadi
was hit in the chest and legs but his injuries were not thought to be
life-threatening, the sources said.
The
deaths bring the overall toll since the September 2000 start of the
Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation to 5,052, mostly
Palestinians, according to an AFP count.
No
Residency
In
another development, the Israeli High Court of Justice on Sunday
narrowly upheld a controversial law preventing Palestinians married to
Israeli Arabs from obtaining residency in Israel.
The
court turned down a petition filed by several human rights groups
contesting as "discriminatory" and "racist" the
law passed by the Knesset in 2002.
An
expanded panel of 11 justices split 6-5 in rejecting the petition,
with court president Aharon Barak supporting it.
The
majority opinion stated in the ruling that the Palestinians were
"residents of an enemy entity" which potentially threatens
Israel's security.
Barak
said the verdict to uphold the legislation infringes on the civil
rights of some Israeli citizens.
Before
the enactment of the law, a Palestinian living in the West Bank or the
Gaza Strip who was married to an Israeli citizen could apply for
Israeli residency and eventually receive citizenship.
Black
Day
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Barak said the verdict infringes on the civil rights of Israeli Arabs.
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"This
is a very black day for the state of Israel and also a black day for
my family and for the other families who are suffering like us,"
said Muad el-Sana, an Israeli Arab attorney married to a Palestinian
woman from the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
"The
government is preventing people from conducting a normal family life
just because of their nationality," he told Israel Radio minutes
after the ruling.
The
court had granted el-Sana's wife, Abir, a temporary injunction
preventing her deportation.
But
el-Sana said the ruling made it almost impossible for the couple and
their two children, aged 2 years and five months, to continue living
together.
The
new verdict also drew immediate rebuke from Israeli human rights
groups.
The
Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said that the court
ruling was a "sad day for democracy in Israel".
"The
decision not to revoke the law ... is not only blatantly racist, but
also undermines the basic tenets of a democratic state by violating
the basic right of the state's civilian population to equality in
general, and the right to family life to Palestinian citizens of
Israel in particular," its chief legal advisor Dan Yakir said.
Amnesty
International has called on Israel to repeal the controversial law.
Demographics
Many
charged that the decision was based on demographic considerations.
"This
is nothing but a pretext to limit the size of the Arab population in
Israel with the use of a racist law which will have tragic
consequences on thousands of families," said Orna Cohen, who
represented several of the families.
Azmi
Bishara, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, agreed.
He
said the ruling was "discriminatory and motivated by
demographics."
Welcomed
the court ruling, Israeli Immigration Absorption Minister Zeev Boim
gave credibility to their argument.
"We
have to maintain the state's democratic nature, but also its Jewish
nature. The extent of entry of in-laws into Israel's territories is
intolerable," he was quoted as saying by the Y-net website.
A
recent poll showed that about 68 percent of Israeli Jews said they
wouldn't live in the same building as Israeli Arabs.
The
survey, conducted by Geocartographia and analyzed in the "Index
of Racism Towards Arab Palestinian Citizens of the State of
Israel", showed that 46 percent of Jews would not allow an Arab
into their homes.
The
survey found racist attitudes increased among the more religious and
among poorer Israeli Jews.
Israeli
Arabs (Palestinians living inside what is now Israel) make up a fifth
of Israel's six million population.
