RAMALLAH, Saturday, January 7, 2023 (WAFA) – The coalition agreements between the parties of the new far-right Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu will reinforce discrimination and racism against Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, warns the Mossawa Center – the Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens of Israel, has warned in a newly released report.

According to Mossawa, a significant portion of the clauses in the agreements between the parties refer to policies calling for the expansion of settlements financed by the government in various localities including in the occupied West Bank, the Galilee, and the Negev. The government treats the three regions as one.

Israeli law already includes dozens of pieces of legislation that grant collective rights to the Jewish majority and discriminate against the Palestinian Arab minority, says the report.

The report warns that the Israeli government will make legislative changes aimed at preventing the definition of segregation as prohibited discrimination, so it will be amended in a way that will allow the creation and maintenance of residential communities on religious grounds.

“Further,” the report adds, “the government is evidently not satisfied with the already bloated military budget and will allocate additional funds that will deepen discrimination against citizens who did not serve in the army.”

“The government will [also] work to discriminate against Arab candidates and will prefer military veterans in the fields of medicine, law, computer science, accounting, and engineering,” says the report.

“The government will transfer the supervisory authority over planning and construction laws to the Ministry of Internal Security, which will likely dramatically increase demolition orders against thousands of houses built in Palestinian-Arab localities”.

M.N