Arab League claims that the UN "is responsible for stopping racist Israeli laws"

The Arab League has condemned the Israeli government’s approval of its draft citizenship bill, calling it a racist policy. Israel’s citizenship bill, if passed into law by the Knesset next week, will remove from Palestinians yet more of their rights in their own land. In a statement, the Arab League said that the member states of the United Nations are legally and morally responsible for defending the UN’s principles and Charter, including the right of the Palestinians to self-determination.

The regional umbrella body called on the international community, international organizations and human rights organizations to intervene to stop Israel from passing a series of racist and punitive laws against its indigenous non-Jewish citizens. In its statement issued on 12 October, the League stressed that democracy and freedom are indivisible, and that it is the international community’s responsibility to defend these values in order to protect the Middle East from further chaos. “The fallout from Israel’s racist policies will affect every country in the region,” said the statement, which called for the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be held accountable for their disregard for international law.

According to the Arab League, if the Israeli parliament approves the bill it will show Israel’s true face as a racist power targeting Palestinians, opening the door to yet more ethnic cleansing. The Palestinians who stayed on their land which became the state of Israel in 1948 will face even greater threats to their continued residence in the land they have inhabited for centuries. Israeli Foreign Secretary Avigdor Lieberman has already hinted that any future land swap as part of a peace agreement will include a “people swap”, leading to the complete expulsion of Palestinians from the part of historic Palestine taken by Zionists for their state in 1948.