European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini rebuffed the Israeli government's requests to refuse to meet with the delegation of Arab lawmakers in the Israeli Knesset in Brussels to prepare a bill to abolish the racist national law and demand international intervention to curb the Israeli "apartheid" policy.
Mogherini agreed to meet with representatives of the Joint Arab List to hear their concerns over issues involving Arab citizens in Israel, her office said in a press release.
She has previously met with other Knesset parties in regards to the controversial nation-state law.
“The meeting was requested by Joint List leader Ayman Odeh several months ago,” the office said.
“[Mogherini] regularly meets government representatives and parliamentarians of partner countries, both from the government and opposition.”
At the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Odeh met with Mogherini while five of his fellow lawmakers met with other top officials, including the foreign minister of Luxembourg, Jean Asselborn.
In his meeting with Mogherini, Odeh asked for the EU to condemn Israel for passing the Jewish Nation-State Law and demand its immediate repeal.
He told her that the new law harmed Israel’s Arab minority and made it harder to achieve equality.
Odeh said that the usage of the words “the land of Israel” in the law harms attempts to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians because it includes the West Bank.
They also discussed socioeconomic discrimination against Arabs citizens of Israel, house demolitions in the Negev and what he termed anti-Arab incitement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet ministers.
Odeh accused government officials in Israel of trying to get his meeting with Mogherini canceled. He said he was grateful to Mogherini for meeting with him.
“The EU’s backing is crucial in our struggle to get the Nation-State Law canceled,” Odeh said.
“When the rights of minorities are trampled on in a democracy, it is not an internal issue. I was happy to see the foreign policy chief shares our concern that the law harms Arab citizens, Israeli democracy and the possibility of forming a Palestinian state and achieving peace,” he stressed.
“Our struggle against this law must be fought in all areas and takes place first and foremost in Israel, in cooperation between the Arab society and democratic Jewish forces.”
“However, our partners in the international arena have a very important contribution [to make] in their support for our struggle against the nation-state law that was legislated by the extreme-right and racist government,” Odeh noted.
