Arab Muslims and Christians make up 20% of
Israel’s population but now a bill that officially defines Israel as the nation-state
of the Jewish people has been approved by cabinet but still requires the
Knesset’s approval to become a law. The new legislation defined reserved
“national rights” for Jews only and not for its minorities, and rights groups
condemned it as racist. The bill is intended to become part of Israel’s basic
laws, would recognise Israel’s Jewish character, institutionalise Jewish law as
an inspiration for legislation and delist Arabic as a second official language.
According to many critics, the
new wording would weaken the wording of Israel’s declaration of independence,
which states that the new state would “be based on the principles of liberty,
justice and freedom expressed by the prophets of Israel [and] affirm complete
social and political equality for all its citizens, regardless of religion,
race or gender”. The new law would effectively give greater emphasis to
Israel’s Jewish character at the expense of its democratic nature. A number of
Israeli basic laws use the term “Jewish and democratic”, giving equal weight to
both. The new law would enshrine only the Jewish character of the state.
Among those to voice their
opposition was the finance minister, Yair Lapid, who said he had spoken to the
family of Zidan Saif, a Druze policeman killed in last week’s deadly attack on
a Jerusalem synagogue. “What will we tell his family? That he is a second-class
citizen in the state of Israel...”
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