New Israeli Laws Cement Racial Discrimination

The Israeli separation wall is seen in the West Bank on Sunday. (AFP)
The Israeli separation wall is seen in the West Bank on Sunday. (AFP)
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New Israeli Laws Cement Racial Discrimination

The Israeli separation wall is seen in the West Bank on Sunday. (AFP)
The Israeli separation wall is seen in the West Bank on Sunday. (AFP)

New Israeli draft laws allow a doctor to abandon their professional oath to treat any patient and gives them the right to refuse to treat on religious grounds.  

Opposition lawmakers said the new laws were an abandonment of values for Israel. 

Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid described them as the most extensive moral deterioration that could lead Israel to become a dark state.  

Lapid blamed new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the rise of such sentiments, saying he was "leading us to a benighted state [ruled by] Jewish law."  

Hundreds of citizens marched in Haifa, protesting the new draft laws, which also say doctors should have the right not to treat homosexuals if it is against their religious belief and if another doctor is on hand to see them.  

Most of the protesters were primarily concerned with the issue of homosexuals. Still, many, including former generals in the army and intelligence, supported Arab demonstrators who opposed the law. 

Another clause in the law allows the separation of males and females in wedding halls and grants hall owners the authority to bar homosexuals from entering.  

The law also allows Jews to buy land plots at low prices in the Negev and Galilee with the aim of Judaizing them. Authorities would allow Israeli forces to clamp down on Arabs.  

New regulations also support education in Jewish towns by including them in the nationally preferred areas, according to which they will be granted tax concessions, excluding Arab cities in Galilee and the Negev.  

Netanyahu's Itamar Ben-Gvir defended the provisions, saying it was good to have a law that allows freedom, adding that the left talks about democracy but acts like a dictatorship.  

Labor MP Gilad Kariv said Israel must decide whether to be a society that respects all people or one that discriminates between them under pretenses, asserting that the law would be used to discriminate against minorities, such as Arabs and Haredi.  

A poll published by the Israeli Kan showed that 48 percent of Israeli citizens believe the situation in the country would be worse by the end of Netanyahu’s term in office in four years. 

Only 29 percent of the respondents said Israel's status would improve, while 38 percent rejected expanding Ben-Gvir's powers and 36 percent supported it.  

Nearly half of the respondents were dissatisfied with the composition of the new government coalition, compared to 37 percent who did. 



Erdogan Says Türkiye Expects Allies to Pull Support from Kurds in Post-Assad Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a press conference with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (not pictured), Ankara, Türkiye, 04 September 2024. (File/EPA)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a press conference with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (not pictured), Ankara, Türkiye, 04 September 2024. (File/EPA)
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Erdogan Says Türkiye Expects Allies to Pull Support from Kurds in Post-Assad Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a press conference with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (not pictured), Ankara, Türkiye, 04 September 2024. (File/EPA)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a press conference with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (not pictured), Ankara, Türkiye, 04 September 2024. (File/EPA)

Türkiye expects foreign countries will withdraw support for Kurdish fighters in Syria following the toppling of Bashar al-Assad, President Tayyip Erdogan said, as Ankara seeks to isolate Kurds who have long fought alongside US troops.

Speaking to reporters on the flight home from a summit in Egypt on Thursday, Erdogan said there was no longer any reason for outsiders to back Kurdish YPG fighters. His comments were released by his office on Friday.

The Kurdish YPG has been the main force in a US-backed alliance in northern Syria, but Türkiye considers the group an extension of the PKK, which has long fought the Turkish state and is banned as terrorists by Ankara, Washington and the EU.

In his remarks, Erdogan compared the US-backed YPG to ISIS, and said neither group had any future in Syria.

"In the upcoming period, we do not believe that any power will continue to collaborate with terrorist organizations. The heads of terrorist organizations such as ISIS and PKK-YPG will be crushed in the shortest possible time."

According to Reuters, the United States still has 900 troops on the ground in Syria working alongside the YPG-led alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF played a major role on the ground defeating ISIS militants in 2014-2017 with US air support, and still guards Islamist fighters in prison camps.

Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the YPG-led SDF in northern Syria, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halts support for the fighters.

Hostilities have escalated since Assad was toppled less than two weeks ago, with Türkiye and Syrian groups it backs seizing the city of Manbij from the SDF on Dec. 9, prompting the United States to broker a fragile ceasefire.

Erdogan told reporters that Türkiye wanted to see a new Syria in which all ethnic and religious groups can live in harmony. To achieve this, " ISIS, the PKK and its versions which threaten the survival of Syria need to be eradicated", he said.

"The PKK terrorist organization and its extensions in particular have reached the end of their lifespan," Erdogan added.

On Thursday, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi told Reuters that Kurdish fighters from outside Syria who had joined the group's ranks would leave if a truce were agreed with Türkiye, long one of Ankara's major demands.

In his remarks, Abdi acknowledged for the first time that Kurdish fighters from other countries - including PKK members - had been assisting the SDF, but said they would no longer be needed under a truce.

A Turkish Defense Ministry official said there was no talk of a ceasefire between Türkiye and the SDF, adding that Ankara would continue taking counter-terrorism measures until "the PKK/YPG lays down its arms and its foreign fighters leave Syria".