Bigotry abound in the Middle East

Two news stories caught my eye recently:

Israel's Supreme Court ruled to uphold a racist law that prevents West Bank Palestinians from living with their spouses and children who are Arab citizens of Israel. The government says Palestinians living in Israel pose a security threat and could assist terrorist elements in the West Bank... While the government says it is an anti-terrorism measure, officials admit that it is also about demographics. Israeli Arabs compose 20 percent of the population and their birthrate is higher than the Jews. So Israel fears the Jewish majority could be threatened if too many Palestinians are granted citizenship.

Maybe the Israelis should've thought of this before they conquered the West Bank and Gaza.

If those from Israeli-occupied Palestine are banned from living in Israel proper, then it's long past time for the territories to become an independent country. The present situation for the Palestinians is the worst of both worlds. They are blamed for not sufficiently controlling terrorism or imposing security, but are denied the resources to do so adequately. They are given 'self-rule' but not possession of taxes collected on 'their behalf.' They are told to become a democracy but punished when the democratic result displeases Israel and the west. The border between Israel and the Israeli-occupied lands are opened and closed arbitrarily on the whim of the Israelis (ironic since the far right in Israel claims that the occupied lands are part of Israel proper; this is akin to having checkpoints between New York and Pennsylvania). Palestinians now can't even live in Israel with their spouses and do menial jobs. It would be one thing to deny entry to Palestnians with criminal records or links to terrorist groups (however that's defined). But a blanket ban on merely living there is racism pure and simple.

Speaking of racism, the nutjob in charge of Iran isn't any better. Some might assume that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a great guy because he continually lambastes Pres. Bush. This sort of nonsense causes many to praise emperors like Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. But Ahmadinejad is no hero, except perhaps to Iranian nationalists and the intellectually lazy. The Iranian head of state just pushed through a new law that would require separate, distinctive dress codes for religious minorities.

Specifically, Jews would be marked out with a yellow strip of cloth sewn in front of their clothes while Christians will be assigned the colour red. Zoroastrians end up with Persian blue...

Canada's National Post, admittedly a conservative paper, reports that the new codes would enable Muslims to easily recognize non-Muslims so that they can avoid shaking hands with them by mistake, and thus becoming najis (unclean).

It's not clear from the article how many Jews and Christians still live in Iran but if this sounds eerily familiar, it should. Especially given the Iranian head of state's promise to wipe Israel off the face of the map.

Then again, maybe the Israelis ought to refresh their memories about the Nuremberg Laws too.


Update: An Iranian Jewish parliamentarian rubbished the National Post report's veracity. So who knows?

Further update: An Associated Press article claims that the law would not ban or require certain kinds of clothing, only offer economic incentives for dress deemed sufficiently authentic.