Laws passed by Knesset are part of an ‘institutionalised apartheid’: Lawyer
Sawsan Zaher, a Palestinian human rights lawyer, told Al Jazeera that the two laws recently approved by the Knesset are “a dream come true for the right-wing coalition in the government”.
The laws allow the government to deport family members of so-called “terrorists” to Gaza and elsewhere, even if they are Israeli citizens and grant the Education Ministry the authority to fire, without notice, teachers who have identified with a “terrorist act”.
She says the issue is there is a “political interpretation of what a terror attack is”, and her experience as a lawyer in Israel is that these laws will be interpreted in a “biased way” against Palestinians.
“We’re talking about collective punishment, against parents, against siblings, against spouses of people who committed attacks that the family member most probably didn’t know about,” she said.
Zaher said that the laws will not be implemented when there is a terror attack against Palestinians.
The laws, she said, should not be seen in isolation but rather as part of “the institutionalised apartheid laws against Palestinians”.
Israel’s opposition leader blasts Netanyahu for appointing ‘puppet’ defence minister
Opposition leader Yair Lapid says Prime Minister Netanyahu had appointed Israel Katz “as a puppet for evasion matters”.
The comments by Lapid on X come after Netanyahu fired Yoav Gallant on Tuesday, saying he had lost confidence in Gallant over the management of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Katz was previously serving as Israel’s foreign minister.
For months, there had been open disagreements between Netanyahu and Gallant, reflecting a wider split between Israel’s right-wing governing coalition and the military, which has long favoured reaching a deal to halt the assault on Gaza and bring home dozens of captives held by Hamas.
Protests erupted across Israel following the announcement as thousands of demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv, blocking the city’s main highway.
Gallant says Israel will face consequences if military presence in Gaza continues
Israel’s recently fired Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has warned that it will prove costly for Israel if it continues its military presence in Gaza.
“I don’t know if it is possible to influence him [Netanyahu] into a ceasefire,” he told families of Israeli captives in Gaza, according to media outlet Days of Palestine.
“I tried and failed. I was isolated in the cabinet, and both the head of the Shin Bet, the chief of staff, and the head of the Mossad agreed with me on the necessity of reaching a deal.”
Moreover, Gallant pointed out that Netanyahu’s stance on the matter was driven by “neither security or political” concerns.
“At the beginning of July, Hamas agreed to a prisoner swap deal, and the conditions have been favourable since then. But until now, we’ve been in disagreement about whether it is ripe or not. I believed, and still believe, that we should be prepared to make a prisoner exchange deal and withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor,” he added.
