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Hirsh Goodman: Watch the ďż˝Aďż˝ Word

On July 7, the cabinet voted to support a bill allowing the government to bar Israeli Arabs from buying homes on land that it chooses to designate as being for Jews only, in a move to circumvent an earlier Supreme Court ruling that all Israelďż˝s citizens are free to live wherever they choose.

What prompted the governmentďż˝s decision was an ongoing attempt by a respectable, hard-working Israeli Arab couple, Adel and Iman Kaďż˝adan, who since 1995 have been petitioning the courts to allow them to live in Katzir, set up by the Jewish Agency inside the Green Line as a Jewish communal settlement.

The Kaďż˝adans claim that as Israelis they have the right to live wherever they want in Israel. In a March 2000 4-1 ruling, the Supreme Court agreed with them, and supported their right to live on Katzir, if they so wished.

From that day on, Knesset Member Haim Druckman of the National Religious Party has made it his private mission to reverse the decision via new legislation that would enable allocation of state land for Jewish use only. On July 7, Education Minister Limor Livnat, a Likud hard-liner, demanded the government support the bill. Seventeen ministers agreed. The Labor ministers, all but Ephraim Sneh, walked out rather than vote against. Sneh and Dan Meridor, who was the only minister to speak out against the decision, voted against. Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit, usually dovish for the Likud, abstained even though the attorney general had advised against the bill.

The result is that on that day the government of Israel formally decided to challenge the Supreme Court and support blatantly discriminatory and morally repugnant legislation.

From the governmentďż˝s perspective, Katzir was established specifically to fulfill the Zionist mission of settling the land and bringing a Jewish majority to the Galilee. Having Adel and Iman Kaďż˝adan move into the neighborhood was not part of the Zionist dream. The Kaďż˝adansďż˝ unrelenting fight, made possible with help from left-leaning human rights groups, was seen by the cabinet majority as a blatant attempt to make cynical use of Israelďż˝s legislative system to undermine the nature of the Jewish state. This was not about the West Bank or Gaza, or peace or war. It was about the Palestinian repossession of the land being implemented through the back door and, as such, it had to be nipped in the bud.

Unfortunately for Israel, the governmentďż˝s decision has, once again, played into the hands of its enemies. Its decision is going to be interpreted as yet another consistent move by the country on its march toward becoming apartheid-era South Africa. The Arab lobby in the United States probably canďż˝t believe its good luck and the Muslims in South Africa, who last August screamed "One Bullet One Jew" in the streets of Cape Town in response to the Durban conference, are going to have a field day. For absolutely no reason other than insecurity and paranoia, Israel has potentially launched into print a million banners: "Israel, the Apartheid State" and "Zionism Is Racism" for whatever international gathering comes next. Just watch.

Allowing the Kaďż˝adans to move into Katzir as per the Courtďż˝s ruling would either have evaporated as a historical curiosity or opened floodgates for future claims. Even if the Kaďż˝adans are only looking for the good life in an upscale community, others could follow their example with a clear political agenda.

That said, these are different times. Israel is desperately fighting to maintain its image in a very difficult and very ugly fight against Palestinian terror. The Palestinian strategy is to portray Israel as racist and to systematically delegitimize the country in every international forum possible. Israel has already felt the effects in Scandinavia, in particular, and Europe, in general. This type of legislation is the wrong thing at the wrong time. It works totally against us.

Sheetrit, the current justice minister, preferred to abstain even though the Supreme Court he should protect was being actively circumvented. Meridor, a former minister of justice, has unique credentials, however: He served as Menachem Beginďż˝s cabinet secretary and who could be more nationalistic than Menachem Begin? "Begin," Meridor said the day after the vote, "would not have even considered holding a discussion on a law in which land of any sort would be granted only to Jews. This is a grave error."

That it is, and on more than one level: enhancing Israelďż˝s image as a racist state with no regard for its own Supreme Court is not a good message to be sending out, particularly not at this time. It may play well on the domestic political scene where every politician in the Likud now feels obliged to prove he or she is more nationalist than Benjamin Netanyahu. But it is a gift to our enemies. It also does not play well on the Israel-Arab scene. Relations between Jewish and Arab Israelis have been traumatized since the start of the latest conflict. Things were exacerbated by the killing of 13 protesters in the opening days. Since then the ugly rhetoric of Arab Knesset members, each one trying to outdo the others in loyalty to the other side, has heightened Israeli suspicions of true Israeli Arab intent. The growing strength and radicalization of the Israeli Arab Islamic movement has added to these insecurities. And among Israeli Arabs, there is growing anger and frustration as their Palestinian brethren, for whatever reason, are forced to live under unbearable conditions as Israel continues in its fight against terror.

The bill is morally reprehensible. It is contrary to the Declaration of Independence, which is specific when it comes to the equality of Israeli Arabs. And, worst of all, itďż˝s plain stupid.