Joint List MK asks Bernie Sanders to fight Jewish nation state law

A Member of Knesset (MK) from the Joint List appealed directly to US Senator Bernie Sanders to pressure the Israeli government over the Jewish nation-state law, reported the Jerusalem Post.

Palestinian MK Jamal Zahalka and general director of legal rights centre Adalah, Hassan Jabareen, “met over the past week with several US congressmen and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to draft their support” against the recently-passed legislation, a Joint List spokesperson said yesterday.

According to the paper, in the meeting with Sanders, Zahalka praised him for speaking out against the law and for his article in the Guardian three weeks ago that it “essentially codifies the second-class status of Israel’s non-Jewish citizens”.

The struggle for equality and justice knows no borders and those who fight for such values in the US will fight an anti-democratic, racist and discriminatory law in Israel as well

Zahalka said.

Jabareen has told the US politicians that there is “no such constitutional law in the world”, while “Zahalka told the congressmen the bill sanctions discrimination, removes rights of Palestinians and legalizes apartheid”.

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Zahalka and Jabareen “asked Sanders and the congressmen to pressure the Israeli government to repeal the law”, which Sanders and the US lawmakers apparently agreed to do.

“The American and Israeli Arab lawmakers decided to remain in dialogue in the future about those efforts,” the Jerusalem Post added.