Thursday, 1 February 2018

‘Multicultural Israel’ bill responds to Jewish nation-state proposal



A new bill titled “Basic Law: Israel – A democratic, multicultural and egalitarian state,” was proposed by Joint List MK Yousef Jabareen this week to serve as his response to the Jewish nation-state bill.


“Instead of dark ideas promoting a hierarchy in the status of citizens and ethnic superiority for Jews, I propose enlightened ideas of equal citizenship and significant multiculturalism for all citizens,” Jabareen argued.



The Jewish nation-state bill, which is strongly backed by the coalition and the government, is a Basic Law, with constitutional weight, that declares that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people. The proposal, which passed a preliminary reading and is being worked on in a legislative committee, includes many declarative elements about the Jewish homeland, and reinforces many existing laws in a Basic Law, such as the flag, national anthem and national symbol and the right of any Jewish person to immigrate to Israel.


Its opponents have raised concerns about articles that could bring changes, such as one saying the Supreme Court should consider Jewish tradition if there is a case with no legal precedent. Two particularly controversial sections are one saying that Hebrew is the official language while Arabic has special status, and one allowing “separate communal settlements” that can be for one religion or nationality.




Article source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/pmo-official-said-sara-netanyahu-ordered-him-to-order-gourmet-meals-1.5782216

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