Before vote, Arab MKs decry nation-state bill
In a debate on the controversial Jewish nation-state bill that stretched past press time Wednesday night, Joint List MKs condemned the legislation.
Joint List leader Ayman Odeh waved a black flag on the Knesset podium. His faction colleague, MK Jamal Zahalka, ripped up the bill.
“We are now seeing with shock the death of our democracy, which has been dying in recent years, and suffering from the racism that has hit a new peak with this bill,” Joint List MK Ahmad Tibi said earlier, in a meeting of the special committee that legislated the bill and approved it by an 8 to 7 vote Wednesday morning along
coalition and opposition lines.
Committee chairman Amir Ohana (Likud) praised the bill’s passage in his committee, saying that “the Jewish people deserve a Jewish state.” He said in the Knesset plenum that the bill had been discussed more than any of 12 basic laws that have been passed before.
While each of those bills dealt with the democratic nature of Israel, this was the first one that dealt with what it means to be a Jewish state.
The Jewish nation-state bill is a draft Basic Law with constitutional heft that declares Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people. It would anchor in law the state’s menorah emblem, Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, national holidays and the right of all Israeli residents to preserve their heritage without consideration of religion and nationality.
Two of the most controversial clauses in the bill were changed. The Diaspora clause says, “The state will act in the Diaspora to maintain the connection between the state and the Jewish people.” The original version said that the connection would be maintained among “the Jewish people, wherever they are.”
A clause that could have permitted one religious group to bar another from living in its community was replaced with one saying: “The state sees developing Jewish settlement as a national interest and will take steps to encourage, advance and implement this interest.” •