After such respect, such humiliation

[newyorican]

A former soccer star from Lod was accused recently of harboring an illegal alien - his wife of four years.

Like many other Israelis, Ibrahim Qadura follows events in Gaza. Like others with children in Gaza, Qadura is listening closely to the talk of the military expanding operations there. However, Qadura's daughter, an Arab Israeli resident of Lod, is not serving in the army there, and is not on a special mission. On December 20, 2-year-old Hadil, an Israeli citizen, was forced to accompany her Palestinian mother, who was deported to Gaza because of the Citizenship Law and the Law of Entry, which prevent the family's reunification.

<snip>

In the storage room next to the busy grocery store he owns, Qadura reconstructs the morning of the deportation. At 8:45 A.M. the police came knocking at his door and took the woman and child to the police station. Only then was he called and asked to come. Qadura himself was questioned for two hours. At the end of the interrogation he was instructed by the police to go home and bring back two suitcases, one for the woman, one for the child. On the same occasion he was also offered to keep the child, who is an Israel citizen. But in this test of Solomon, Qadura was both judge and parent. It was clear to him that he could not tear the child away from her mother.

<snip>

In the suitcases he packed a few things that would not be too heavy to carry, and presented himself at the station. His request to escort his wife and child to the Erez crossing was rejected on the spot. They were put into a police van and driven to a checkpoint. For three hours, in the cold, the woman and child sat on the Israeli side of the crossing. For no good reason. Every few minutes he spoke with them on the phone. He cried, and Hanan comforted him. After three hours they were sent on their way to Gaza.

<snip>

A tone of bitterness creeps into his voice when he speaks of a nephew of his who married a woman from the Philippines, and another nephew who married a Russian woman, whom he met in Russia as a student. Both have since become Israeli citizens, and only his Palestinian wife has been deported to Gaza. But even this story he hurries to sum up: "That's the law, and even if its a racist law, nothing can be done."

Read more...

...

[papau]

1. he is a victim ofthe intifada -Citizenship law was an angry desire to deny

Palestinians the possibility of family reunifications.

I hope the anger - and this law - will disappear once the final settlement is reached.

[Matilda]

2. He is a victim of injustice and petty cruelty.

And it is these things that have given birth to the intafada.

[newyorican]

3. He is but one victim of a racist law...

enacted by the GOI. No one is forced to be racist, it is a choice one makes.

As another poster has said to me, "its ok to say the palestenians Israelis did a bad thing, without reservations. In fact its a good thing when societies have to face up to their problems."

[Scurrilous]

4. Pines-Paz blasts 'racist' citizenship legislation

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=534967&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

<snip>

"Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz is drafting a bill meant to make it easier to bestow Israeli citizenship on Palestinian residents of the territories, including through family reunification.

"The current law is draconian and racist," Pines-Paz told Haaretz Tuesday, saying his bill would be drafted in coordination with Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz.

The minister's comments followed a Knesset vote on Monday to extend a temporary law governing citizenship and entry to Israel, which was originally meant to restrict the right of Palestinian residents of the territories to obtain Israeli citizenship through marriage to Israelis. The law also proposes imposing restrictions on granting permits to enter and spend time in Israel. The temporary law was slated to expire in May.

The government decided in 2003 to initiate the legislation after it became convinced that thousands of Arab residents of the territories had received Israeli citizenship in recent years and settled in the country."