Palestinian citizen of Israel granted asylum in UK

A Palestinian citizen of Israel has been granted asylum in the UK after claiming he would face persecution in his home country on the grounds of his race, his Muslim faith and his opinion that Israel “is governed by an apartheid regime”, the Guardian has reported.

Lawyers for 24-year-old Hasan, whose real identity is remaining a secret, said his pro-Palestine activism placed an increased risk of hostile attention should he return to Israel.

It was Hasan’s belief, his lawyers said, that Israel was governed by “an apartheid regime that engages in systematic and pervasive discrimination, persecution and violence touching on all aspects of Palestinian life.”

The Home Office decision issued on Monday, came two days before a hearing which was scheduled to be held today. The lawyers added that they believe this is the first case in which a Palestinian citizen of Israel has been granted asylum in the UK.

Hasan’s claim was submitted to the Home Office prior to 7 October, however his lawyers subsequently “made a supplementary claim” arguing that the security situation for Palestinian citizens of Israel “had worsened further as the war in Gaza had gone on”.

Israel denies claims it is an apartheid state or carries out racist policies against its citizens. However, the 2018 Nation-State Law declared that only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country and stripped Arabic of its designation as an official language alongside Hebrew.

According to Amnesty International, Israeli authorities enact multiple measures to deliberately deny Palestinians their basic rights and freedoms, including chronic discriminatory underinvestment in Palestinian communities in Israel.

Palestinian citizens of Israel, who comprise about 19 per cent of the population, “face many forms of institutionalised discrimination,” Amnesty said. “Palestinians are effectively blocked from leasing on 80% of Israel’s state land, as a result of racist land seizures and a web of discriminatory laws on land allocation, planning and zoning.”

“Decades of deliberately unequal treatment of Palestinian citizens of Israel have left them consistently economically disadvantaged in comparison to Jewish Israelis. This is exacerbated by blatantly discriminatory allocation of state resources,” it added.

Full explanation required for doctors beaten, forced to strip by Israel troops in Gaza: UK