PA Foreign Ministry: Israeli law allowing body searches is “Antisemitic,” “smells of racism, hatred, and a culture of religious wars”
Headline: “The [PA] Foreign Ministry welcomes the consensus around our rights in the [UN] Security Council and demands that it translate it into actions.”
“The [PA] Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the approval (for second and third reading in the committee –Ed.) of the law [allowing] body search, by the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset). This law gives the occupation soldiers and police the right to detain any Palestinian they suspect, search him on the spot, and strip him of his clothes, just because of a “reasonable suspicion.” The ministry stated: ‘This decision indicates an arrogant, racist viewpoint which has begun spreading in Israeli society and taking over decision making centers in Israel. This viewpoint sees the Palestinian people as inferior, as part of a classification of peoples originating in ancient periods of history, as if the occupation of the land of the State of Palestine by Israel gives it the right to humiliate the Palestinian people…’ The announcement emphasized: ‘The approval of this Antisemitic law, close to the anniversary of the Nazi Holocaust (i.e., International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Jan. 27), which we all condemn, smells of racism, hatred, and a culture of religious wars.”
“The [PA] Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the approval (for second and third reading in the committee –Ed.) of the law [allowing] body search, by the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset). This law gives the occupation soldiers and police the right to detain any Palestinian they suspect, search him on the spot, and strip him of his clothes, just because of a “reasonable suspicion.” The ministry stated: ‘This decision indicates an arrogant, racist viewpoint which has begun spreading in Israeli society and taking over decision making centers in Israel. This viewpoint sees the Palestinian people as inferior, as part of a classification of peoples originating in ancient periods of history, as if the occupation of the land of the State of Palestine by Israel gives it the right to humiliate the Palestinian people…’ The announcement emphasized: ‘The approval of this Antisemitic law, close to the anniversary of the Nazi Holocaust (i.e., International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Jan. 27), which we all condemn, smells of racism, hatred, and a culture of religious wars.”