ISRAEL

Independent: Israel Imposes 'Racist' Marriage Law

JERUSALEM -- Israel's Parliament has passed a law preventing Palestinians who marry Israelis from living in Israel. The move was denounced by human rights organisations as racist, undemocratic and discriminatory.

Under the new law, rushed through yesterday, Palestinians alone will be excluded from obtaining citizenship or residency. Anyone else who marries an Israeli will be entitled to Israeli citizenship.

"Israel, die einzige "Demokratie" des Nahen Ostens"

AFP: US Struggles Over Israeli
Marriage Law As Discriminatory
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Monday struggled to express its opposition to a new Israeli law that blocks Palestinians from acquiring Israeli citizenship through marriage, describing the legislation as discriminatory in all but name.

State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said the law, adopted by parliament on July 31, clearly applied "only to non-Israeli residents of the West Bank and Gaza, the vast majority of whom are Palestinian." "In this regard, the new law singles out one group for different treatment than others," he told reporters.
Despite that assessment -- which appears to match the dictionary definition of "discriminatory" -- Reeker declined to use the word, noting that an Israeli human rights group was mounting a court challenge to the legality of the law.