Characterised
ence during a special Plenary Hall session
between Arabs as individuals and Arabs as a nation, just as Israel’s laws do. The former, individuals, have all the rights of any Israeli citizen to health care, education, self-fulfilment, and more. The national aspirations of the latter, as a nation, must be found among one of the 22 Arab nations.
The Israeli Prime Minister has been known to make inflammatory comments that should rightly be called out. To do this effectively, one must be careful to use his actual words and their contextual meaning.
Shoshanna Jaskoll is a JC columnist
LESS THAN a year ago, when Benjamin Netanyahu began pushing his coalition to support the Nation State law, many Knesset members were astonished.
The bill had been languishing — over three different Knesset terms — since it was tabled in 2011. Like so many other pieces of nationalist legislation proposed by right-wing backbenchers, it seemed destined to gather dust.
“Netanyahu never showed much interest,” recalls one MK. “It was clear for years that he had no problem with the Nation State law dying in committee.”
But a year ago, it suddenly gathered pace: the bill was sprinted through committee, brought to its first Knesset reading on May 1 and, on July 19, after innumerable changes and amendments — and some heavy pressure on coalition members who thought such a quasi-constitutional law should only be legislated with a wide national consensus — it passed 62-55 in to law.
But there should be no surprise over why Mr Netanyahu was so suddenly insistent on it.
He was already preparing for the upcoming election and this time he was not about to wait for the last day to make it about the Arabs, lest there be no doubt over which party is standing up for the Jews.
In recent weeks, the law has become a constant campaign rallying call for Likud politicians.
One of the worst things Likud has to say in its propaganda about Benny Gantz and his Blue & White party is that if they win, they will change the Nation State law.