Israel expands 'racist' residency law pushing 'segregation' for Palestinians

The Israeli Knesset approved the expansion of a "racist" law, which rights groups have warned will increase segregation between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel.

The Admissions Committee Law passed on Tuesday with a 42-11 majority and will particularly target the Al-Jalil (Galilee) and Naqab (Negev) regions.

The law, first enacted in 2011, previously allowed Jewish communities with less than 400 households in Al-Jalil and the Naqab to have "admissions committees" that can reject residential applications based on an applicant being "unsuitable to the social and culture makeup" of the towns.

The amendment expands the cap to 700 households, whilst also expanding the geographical scope to any town deemed a National Priority Area by the Central Bureau of statics based on the Peripherality Index. This number will able to be increased by the economy minister to above the 700 threshold in five years.

Although the bill is not allowed to disqualify applicants based on religion, nationality, sexual orientation or political affiliation, wording within the law has prompted outrage and accusations of racism and entrenched segregation against Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Reacting to the bill, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel – stated that "No one is trying to conceal the racist purpose of the law, which aims to continue and promote the values anchored in the Jewish Nation State Law, to establish and expand Jewish settlements."

The Jewish Nation State Law, enacted in 2018, enshrined the Jewish identity of Israel into the constitution and recognised current occupied Palestinian territories as part of Israel. It also removed Arabic as an official language.

Adalah noted that, whilst a section of the law that would have allowed it to be implemented in the occupied West Bank was removed, it was likely that it would be enacted via military orders. The organisation intends to file a case with Israel's Supreme Court to fight the law.

These criticisms were furthered by Zulat for Equality and Human Rights who said the law "officially expand[s] racial segregation to hundreds more communities, in violation of the principle of equality and the State of Israel’s international commitments".

Israel has been accused of increasingly marginalising its Palestinian minority, with Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Yitzhak Wasserlauf looking to scrap plans to increase the socio-economic levels of Israel's Palestinian citizens, diverting the money towards Jewish communities instead.