Racial discrimination against the indigenous Palestinian people was formalized and institutionalized at an early stage through the creation by law of a “Jewish nationality” that is distinct from Israeli citizenship. Significantly, there is no such thing as “Israeli” nationality. The 1950 Law of Return is an effective nationality law, because it entitles all Jews, regardless of their geographic location, the rights of nationals, namely the right to enter “Eretz Israel” (Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory) and immediately enjoy full legal and political rights. “Jewish nationality” under the Law of Return is an extra-territorial status and therefore contravenes international law norms pertaining to nationality.79 It includes Jewish citizens of other countries, irrespective of whether they wish to be part of the collective of “Jewish nationals,” and excludes “non-Jews” (i.e., Palestinians) from nationality rights in Israel.80 In combination with the 1952 Citizenship Law,81 Israel has created a discriminatory two-tier legal system whereby Jews hold nationality and citizenship, while the remaining indigenous Palestinian citizens hold only citizenship82 and Palestinian refugees hold no legal status at all. Palestinians are not expressly identified as a racial/national group in laws and public documents of the State of Israel. Palestinians are designated by the term “persons outside the scope of the Law of Return” in Israel’s laws. Other designations used by the administration, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics and the official media are “minorities” or “Arabs.” Such designations reflect the denial of Palestinians as a national group and serve to hide the discriminatory character of Israeli laws and policies. 79 Thus, for example, former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir explained: “the frontier [of Israel] is where Jews live, not where there is a line on the map.” BADIL and COHRE, Ruling Palestine: A History of the Legally Sanctioned Jewish-Israeli Seizure of Land and Housing in Palestine, Center on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) and BADIL, 2005, p.72. 80 See Mallison, W., “The Zionist-Israel juridical claims to constitute ‘the Jewish people’ nationality entity and to confer membership in it. Appraisal in public international law”, 32 George Washington Law Review, 1964, p. 983-1075; also: Tekiner, Roselle, “Race and the Issue of National Identity in Israel”, Journal of Middle East Studies, 23 (1991), 39-55; and, Adalah, “Institutionalized Discrimination Against Palestinian Citizens of Israel”, Report to 2001 WCAR, Durban, August/September 2001. 81 In the official translation into English, this law is misleadingly called “Law of Nationality.” 82 Tekiner, Roselle, “Race and the Issue of National Identity in Israel”, Journal of Middle East Studies, 23 (1991). 27