{"id":50299,"date":"2014-11-24T14:06:40","date_gmt":"2014-11-24T14:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=50299"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:27:16","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:27:16","slug":"israeli-cabinet-approves-legislation-defining-nation-state-of-jewish-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/11\/israeli-cabinet-approves-legislation-defining-nation-state-of-jewish-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli Cabinet Approves Legislation Defining Nation-State of Jewish People"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opponents say proposed law would reserve \u2018national rights\u2019 for Jews and not for minorities that make up 20% of population.<\/em><\/p>\n

23 Nov 2014 – <\/em>A controversial bill that officially defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people has been approved by cabinet despite warnings that the move risks undermining the country\u2019s democratic character.<\/p>\n

Opponents, including some cabinet ministers, said the new legislation defined reserved \u201cnational rights\u201d for Jews only and not for its minorities, and rights groups condemned it as racist.<\/p>\n

The bill, which is intended to become part of Israel\u2019s basic laws, would recognise Israel\u2019s Jewish character, institutionalise Jewish law as an inspiration for legislation and delist Arabic as a second official language.<\/p>\n

Arab Muslims and Christians make up 20% of Israel\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

The cabinet passed the bill by a 14-7 majority after reports of rancorous exchanges during the meeting, including between the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and his justice minister, Tzipi Livni.<\/p>\n

The bill, which still requires the Knesset\u2019s approval to become a law, comes as tensions between Israelis and Palestinians rise sharply, and friction within Israel\u2019s Arab minority grows.<\/p>\n

Opponents include two of the more centrist parties in Netanyahu\u2019s fragile coalition – which say the bill is being pushed through with forthcoming primaries in the prime minster\u2019s rightwing Likud party in mind – and senior government officials including the attorney general.<\/p>\n

According to many critics, the new wording would weaken the wording of Israel\u2019s declaration of independence, which states that the new state would \u201cbe 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s deadly attack on a Jerusalem synagogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat will we tell his family? That he is a second-class citizen in the state of Israel because someone has primaries in the Likud?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu argued that the law was necessary because people were challenging the notion of Israel as a Jewish homeland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many who are challenging Israel\u2019s character as the national state of the Jewish people. The Palestinians refuse to recognise this and there is also opposition from within.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are those, including those who deny our national rights, who would like to establish autonomy in the Galilee and the Negev.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither do I understand those who are calling for two states for two peoples but who also oppose anchoring this in law. They are pleased to recognise a Palestinian national state but strongly oppose a Jewish national state.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to reports in the Hebrew media, the attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein, has also expressed concern, shared by some ministers, that the new law would effectively give greater emphasis to Israel\u2019s Jewish character at the expense of its democratic nature. A number of Israeli basic laws use the term \u201cJewish and democratic\u201d, giving equal weight to both. The new law would enshrine only the Jewish character of the state.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu appeared to confirm that there would be differential rights for Israeli Jews and other minorities. He said that while all could enjoy equal civil rights, \u201cthere are national rights only for the Jewish people – a flag, anthem, the right of every Jew to immigrate to Israel and other national symbols.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cabinet ministers, including Netanyahu, separately proposed stripping Palestinian attackers of their residency rights in occupied East Jerusalem in response to a wave of deadly violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt cannot be that those who harm Israel, those who call for the destruction of the state of Israel, will enjoy rights like social security,\u201d Netanyahu said, adding that the measure would complement house demolitions and serve as a deterrent.<\/p>\n

Critics, however, have condemned the measures as racist said that they could further escalate tensions.<\/p>\n

The cabinet met as fresh reports of continuing violence emerged. In Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces had shot dead a Palestinian on Sunday, the first such fatality since a 50-day Gaza war ended in August.<\/p>\n

In the West Bank, a Palestinian home was torched on Sunday. No one was hurt in the fire, which gutted the home in the village of Khirbet Abu Falah near Ramallah, local residents said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe settlers came here and they hit the door, but I refused to open,\u201d said Huda Hamaiel, who owns the house. She said they then broke a terrace window and hurled a petrol bomb inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeath to Arabs\u201d and another slogan calling for revenge were also painted on the walls of Hamaiel\u2019s home, hallmarks of Jewish extremists\u2019 so-called \u201cprice tag\u201d attacks against Palestinian dwellings and mosques and Christian church property.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

23 Nov 2014 – A controversial bill that officially defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people has been approved by cabinet despite warnings that the move risks undermining the country\u2019s democratic character.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}