Dr. Basel Ghattas (MK) Discusses Palestinian Civil Liberties in Israel

posted on: Sep 9, 2016

BY: Nisreen Eadeh/Staff Writer

The Arab Center Washington, DC hosted Dr. Basel Ghattas, a Palestinian Member of the Israeli Knesset, on August 25 for a special discussion on civil liberties in Israel.

Dr. Ghattas is a member of Balad, the Arab Israeli political party, which is part of the Joint Arab List in the Knesset. As a member of the Joint List, Dr. Ghattas seeks to promote Arab interests, such as civil rights and the two-state solution.

In his talk, Dr. Ghattas focused on two laws brought up recently that abuse Palestinian civil rights. The first he spoke about was approved on July 20, which allows 90 of 120 lawmakers to oust their fellow members from office who “back armed struggle against Israel or incite racial hatred.” The law came as a response to one Arab MK who visited the families of Palestinians who were killed while attacking Israelis in February – a move that was viewed as supporting terrorism.

Joint (Arab) List MKs Hanin Zoabi (center), Jamal Zahalka (right) and Basel Ghattas (center left, behind Zoabi) speak with the press in Jerusalem on February 17, 2015. Image credit: Times of Israel

The second law that Dr. Ghattas said the world should be worried about is the anti-NGO law the country passed on July 12. This law forces the peace-seeking NGOs in Israel, which are mostly funded by European countries, to note that when filing government reports. The bill singles out leftist groups that support a Palestinian state and calls out Israel’s human rights violations only.

Dr. Ghattas cited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the reason for the country’s heavily enforced right agenda. Netanyahu “wants to rule according to [his] agenda, and no compromises with anybody,” said Dr. Ghattas. “We see this every week in the Knesset. The [far right] will start thinking about a fascist law, decide on it on a Sunday, and the Monday after the draft, it is in a Knesset reading.” Normally, it takes months to review and discuss a proposed law, but in Israel, it can pass in less than one week.

This elimination of the bureaucratic process to pass laws is a direct result of majority rule, Dr. Ghattas argued. “The Likud believes that democracy is only about one thing: the majority rule.” But only focusing on majority rule ignores minority rights, human rights, checks and balances, and division of authority – crucial elements to maintaining equality in society – according to Dr. Ghattas.

Another supporting factor to the passing of these laws is the West. “All the world was against this [anti-NGO law]; they called it fascist and anti-democratic,” said Dr. Ghattas. But Netanyahu skewed the law to sound like the NGOs were attacking Israel, stopping Europe and North America from criticizing him further. These countries only condemned the anti-NGO law, “because it has some relation to the West,” but when it comes to anti-Arab laws, they say nothing.

Netanyahu in the Knesset after passing anti-NGO law. Image credit: Times of Israel

Furthermore, Dr. Ghattas suggested Netanyahu lied about supporting the two-state solution on purpose “as part of his conflict management policy.” Dr. Ghattas cited evidence of this in the fact that Netanyahu has not done anything in the direction of creating a Palestinian state. “On the contrary, everything that he did as Prime Minister was against any potential, feasible possibility to create a two-state solution,” said Dr. Ghattas. “He proved that he can manage the conflict and all recent developments in the region prove him to be true,” Dr. Ghattas said, referring to the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, as well as Islamophobia in the West, as “distractions” to the Palestinian issue.

Israel isn’t paying a price for their violations and the next American president won’t change anything to this relationship, Dr. Ghattas argued. According to the MK, it doesn’t make a difference to the Palestinians if Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump are elected because Netanyahu is capable of maintaining his power long-term and enforcing his agenda with ease.

The Palestinian question is being undermined by drastic changes in Israeli politics, which are making the country less democratic. Dr. Ghattas held that the Israeli government is capable of being more extreme and more fanatical, thus threatening the future of Palestine even further.

“If a political party struggles, they move to bring this government down, to remove it, to dismantle it. But this idea is based on the hope that the next election will bring change… that should be better. This is not the case [in Israel]. Even if you fight and try to move to dismantle this government, we know that the next election won’t bring any serious or dramatic change.”

This condition of apathy felt by Palestinians is intended to make them give up on their civil rights, but as long as leaders like Dr. Ghattas are in the Knesset, hope for change remains.

Watch Dr. Basel Ghattas MK full discussion on C-SPAN here.