Pan-Muslim group decries ‘racist’ Israeli legislation

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AA) - The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has condemned Israel’s recently approved “Jewish Nation-State” law, describing it as “racist” and “illegitimate”.

In a Friday statement, OIC Secretary-General Yousef bin Ahmad al-Othaimeen called the controversial legislation “a flagrant challenge to the will, laws and legitimate decisions of the international community”.

He also said that the law “ignores the historical rights” of Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian.

The law, al-Othaimeen added, “serves to legitimize Israel’s occupation and its settlement policies” -- policies, he went on to assert, “which are based on the denial of the Palestinian people’s existence and history”.

He went on to urge the international community to “reject and condemn” the law, which, he warned, “will only serve to undermine the vision of a two-state solution”.

On Thursday, the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approved the law, which describes Israel as “the nation-state of the Jewish people”.

It was approved by a vote of 62 to 55 in a tumultuous assembly session in which Arab lawmakers decried what they called “Israeli racism against the Arab minority”.

The legislation further states that a “united Jerusalem” is the capital of Israel and that Hebrew is the country's official language, stripping Arabic of its earlier designation as an official language while recognizing its “special status”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, has hailed the legislation, describing its passage as a “defining moment for Zionism and Israel”.