Critics say proposed nation-state bill would deny equal rights to non-Jewish citizens

ACONTROVERSIAL bill making its way through Israel’s parliament has sparked fierce debate over the foundations of democracy in the country and what it means to be Israeli, with critics saying it will deny equal rights to non-Jewish citizens.

Yesterday the Israeli government edged closer to approving the “nation-state bill” aimed at boosting Israel’s Jewish character.

Proposed by members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party and supported by much of his right wing coalition, the bill clarifies in about a dozen points Israel’s purpose as “a national home for the Jewish people” and pinpoints its national symbols.

It could be voted into law as soon as next week.

The thrust of the proposed legislation is similar to the Declaration of Independence signed by Israel’s founders in 1948, except that the historic document also underscored the democratic values of the state, giving the country’s Arab inhabitants “equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions”.

In contrast, the nation-state bill, which if approved would be a basic law with constitutional status, downgrades the status of that minority group’s language, Arabic, to a “special status,” instead of an official language alongside Hebrew.

Arabic is spoken by 20% of population.

The bill also includes a clause enabling the creation of homogeneous communities based on religion and nationality.

Clause 7B has been widely condemned as anti-democratic and racist by opposition lawmakers, members of the Arab community and human rights groups.

It has also drawn criticism from some aligned with the Israeli leadership.

On Monday, President Reuven Rivlin expressed his concern about that clause in a letter to Netanyahu. the The law has no balance and “could harm the Jewish people and Jews around the world and in Israel”, he said. It could even be used by our enemies as a weapon.”

The Knesset’s legal adviser, Eyal Yinon, and representatives of the attorney-general’s office have expressed similar concerns.

Speaking in the parliament yesterday, Yousef Jabareen, an Israel Arab member of the Knesset, called the legislation an “apartheid law”. He also said it was no different from the Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation in the southern US after the Civil War and into the 20th century.

Roughly 75% of Israel’s 8.5 million population is Jewish, according to the latest figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics. Muslim and Christian Arabs make up 21% of the population, and other non-Jewish minority groups account for 5%. Israel also has populations that are ethnically Ethiopian and Russian, whose Jewish status is sometimes questioned by the state.

Pnina Tamano-Shatta, a lawmaker of Ethiopian heritage, said activists supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel because of its treatment of the Palestinians would celebrate this law.

“I have persuaded BDS activists that Israel is not apartheid, but if this bill passes, I won’t be able to do that anymore,” she said.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union of Reform Judaism, which represents 1.5 million Reform Jews in 900 synagogues in the US and Canada, also said he believed the law would “empower our enemies, giving them more fodder and weakening the case we make for Israel every day across America”.

Amir Fuchs of the Israel Democracy Institute said: “There was no country in the world that had not specifically enumerated the right of equality in its constitution.

“The right to equality is embedded in the values mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, which has been the definitive document framing the character of the State of Israel for the past 70 years.”

If the nation-state bill is approved, it would override other basic laws on the issue.

Avraham Diskin, a professor emeritus of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said the law was designed specifically to address Israel’s enemies, including the Palestinians, who do not “recognise the right of the Jewish state to exist”. “There are some controversial clauses, but it is really a very simple and declarative law that people with political interests like to say is racist because they do not believe the Jewish state has the right to exist.”

Despite the backlash, Netanyahu has expressed a desire to see the bill passed before the Knesset breaks for the summer next week.

Addressing his coalition partners earlier this month, the prime minister said it was time to complete the legislative process on this important bill, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Tourism Minister Yariv Levin said: “This is one of the most important bills the Knesset has ever considered. It expresses the deep foundations of Zionism on which the state was built.” KAMPALA: Uganda is deploying military escorts and buying armoured trucks for each of its more than 400 lawmakers while blaming growing insecurity, but critics have blasted the decision as too expensive for a poor country that has long been considered one of Africa’s more stable nations.

Longtime President Yoweri Museveni issued the directive in a June 29 letter to the finance minister that cites “shallow criminality and terrorism” in recent years.

Some lawmakers have cited threats since passing a bill in December that opened the door for 73-year-old Museveni to possibly rule into the 2030s.

Kizza Besigye, Uganda’s most prominent opposition leader, said on Twitter that lawmakers felt the need to tighten their security “because they were used” by Museveni in his efforts to prolong his rule.

It was not immediately clear how much the new security measures would cost.

One ruling party lawmaker, Ibrahim Abiriga, was shot dead by unknown gunmen near the capital, Kampala, last month. It was one of several gun attacks in the country since 2015, with victims including a public prosecutor, a police spokesperson and several Muslim preachers.

Museveni, a key US security ally, took power by force in 1986 and has since won elections four times. The last vote, in 2016, was marred by allegations of fraud.

Although Museveni has campaigned on his strong security record over the years, some worry that those gains are being depleted as he stays longer in power.

Uganda was sliding slowly into crisis, the International Crisis Group reported late last year as lawmakers prepared to pass the bill that removed a presidential age limit from the constitution. It had prevented anyone older than 75 from holding office. – AP