Arabs protest Nation-State Law

The campaign against the controversial Jewish Nation-State Law spread from Druze to Arabs Sunday night when a demonstration against the law was held in Haifa.

Hundreds of Arab and Jewish activists came to the event to strategize how best to fight against the law that passed July 19. Joint List leader Ayman Odeh criticized the strategy of Zionist Union MK Zoheir Bahloul, who announced his resignation from the Knesset on live television Saturday to protest the law.

“Those who have been asking whether we will be quitting must understand that we will do the exact opposite,” Odeh said. “We will go out in hordes to vote. We will put our full political weight in the political arena. The Arab population cannot bring about change by itself but change cannot happen without the Arab population.”

MK Aida Touma-Sliman called the legislation “an Apartheid law that was made on a blue and white assembly line” and said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, and other ministers want Israel to be an Apartheid regime.

“This struggle must be not only of Arabs but of all those who looked for the words equality and democracy in the legislation and didn’t find them and want them to be in the laws of the State of Israel,” Touma-Sliman said.

Meretz MK Mossy Raz complained that the law says the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people and not the Palestinians as well. He also complained that it called for Jewish settlement, saying that there would be an uproar if France passed a law calling for Christian settlement.

“This legislation should end up uniting the citizens – against the law,” Raz said.

Culture Minister Miri Regev (Likud) wrote to the Druze on Sunday that the law does not discriminate against them and that they “should not be tricked by the radical Left” into believing otherwise.