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Tuesday, September 10, 2002 02:23 a.m.

Israel: watch out for the 'Arab-free zone' law

To cut a long story short, back in 1995, one Arab, Adel Ka'adan by name, had the effrontery to seek to acquire a plot of land in the town of Katzir. No fiery crosses or riders in bedsheets were required to forestall this disaster: merely a flat refusal from the solid citizens of the burg making up the 'admissions committee'.

Undaunted, Ka'adan took legal action, and eventually won his case that Katzir's action was unconstitutional.

Naturally, he's still waiting for his land; Katzir is not Little Rock, and Sharon - need it be pointed out? - is no Eisenhower.

Such insolence, however, demanded retribution. Which duly arrived in the form of the Druckman bill - the meat of which is to give communities - some communities, not all: but, then, how many Jewish settlements were there in the Territories in 1967? - the power to exclude non-Jews from residence.

(I assume that secular Jews would not be barred under the bill - and that, as with Third Reich, the concern of the bill is to achieve racial, rather than religious, purity. But I haven't seen the point referred to, so may be wrong on this. As for the Mischling, perhaps he would be limited to half a plot; or a plot straddling the municipal boundary!)

Of course, all parliaments include eccentrics introducing all sorts of outlandish bills that immediately disappear without trace.

The Druckman bill, however, was welcomed with open arms, both by the Israeli public and the Sharon cabinet.

The self-haters and the Guardian tendency all took exception - but that, surely, would scarcely have been unexpected or unwelcome.

But, a few days later, Sharon and Co did a U-turn, and decided to put the bill on the back-burner, by referring it to a parliamentary committee, whose "discussions were expected to last months if not years".

The reason for such an abrupt change is unclear - the bill could surely have been delayed to the Greek Kalends by more orthodox, and less embarrassing, means in its passage through the Knesset if that were the wish of the Cabinet.

(Interestingly, the

" first cabinet-level meeting between Israelis and Palestinians in four months"

Will the Druckman bill re-emerge in some form at some time? After all, most great pieces of reforming legislation - abolition of slavery, female suffrage - took more than one attempt to succeed.

I suspect we will hear more from this latter-day Wilberforce.....