But didn't the Prophets spent most of their time urging the Israelites to slaughter people and warning that God would punish them if they didn't?

They slaughter Palestinians on a regular basis.

ARTICLE 4

Islam is the official religion in Palestine. Respect and sanctity of all other heavenly religions shall be maintained.
The principles of Islamic Shari’a shall be the main source of legislation.
Arabic shall be the official language.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Palestine_(2003)

Not sure where you get "non-person status" from that.

(1) A law that ignores 24% of a country's population is a racist law.

(2) The Likrud party is a right wing group of hacks.

(3) Ignoring a large segment of the country in favor of the other: bigotry.

(4) There can be no liberty, justice and peace while 24% of a population is ignored or become unpersons.

(5) "prophets of Israel" ??? Are you fucking serious ???

(6) "Equal rights for all its citizens" comes from treating them equally and not telling them that they will be taking a backseat to another ethnic group.

If America declared that it was a nation-state for Caucasians or xtians only, excluding the rest, how would you expect the "excluded others" to react?


Ober, this Jewish-only policy is a losing horse..a bigoted one at that. I wouldn't back it with your usual stance of naiveté.

Last edited Tue Jul 14, 2015, 10:57 AM - Edit history (1)

Israel is the nation-state for the Jewish people. That's been the case since it was founded. Look at UN Resolution 181. Look at their Declaration of Independence. This is not new. (Incidentally, the "prophets of Israel" line that has you slapping your head is also a direct quote from Israel's Declaration of Independence from 1948)

As to whether or not it is racist, you ask the question about how people would react to American being declared a nation-state for Caucasians. I hope that you realize why this analogy is invalid and nonsensical and were just attempting rhetorical hyperbole. Permit me to instead relate another example that I have pointed to before that I think is more instructive.

In 1991, Macedonia declared itself to be an independent state. In doing so, they identified in their founding documents "the historical fact that the Republic of Macedonia has been constituted as a nation-state of the Macedonian people" - and pointed to the right to self-determination for the Macedonia people.

Of course there was a sizable group of people in said state who were not Macedonian, so, with that in mind, the Constitution specifically emphasized that it "provides full equality for all its citizens and the permanent co-existence of the Macedonian people and ethnic Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Romanies and other nationalities living in the Republic of Macedonia."

I would say that this represents a somewhat similar model to the way Israel identifies itself. Would you agree?

While building settlements on their land?

I certainly agree that Israel ought to stop building settlements and end the occupation, but that's not really the topic of the OP nor the points in the post to which I am responding.

Let me ask you this question: If Israel was to end the occupation and withdraw all settlements from the West Bank, would you be OK with Israel self-identifying as the nation-state of the Jewish people (in the way that Macedonia does for the Macedonian people)?

Israel that exists right now.

The real purpose of the Jewish nation state bill is to clarify that if Israel has to choose between being democratic and Jewish, it will choose the latter over the former.

That is not an issue with Macedonia, as they are not on the path to apartheid.

What makes you say that Macedonia is not on that path?

From 2013:

Opposition calls for protests “against the Apartheid regime” installed in FYR Macedonia

http://www.balkaneu.com/opposition-calls-protests-against-apartheid-regime-installed-fyr-macedonia/#sthash.4hmMl7BE.dpuf

is to prevent a bi-national state.

AFAIK the proposal says that the right to self-determination, in Israel, would be unique to the Jewish people In effect the law is highly bigoted; relegating a portion of the population (24%) to second-class citizen status.

The prposal also states that Hebrew will be the official language, the the Hebrew calendar will be the official calendar, and Hebrew law would serve as an inspiration to Israeli legislators.

In effect the law is built on bigotry, to serve bigoted interests while ignoring a population that is not Jewish.

And, again, if that kind of bigoted law was proposed in the USA there would be a revolution.

That is the part that you seem to be missing when you keep making that comparison.

Israel, from the first day of its existence, was designed to be exactly that.

One cannot be a state for 1 people on the backs of another.

If that is how Isrsel was designed then like the slave-holding USA it was built on a foundation of racism with some being more equal than others.

This seems to be about more than just the occupied territories.

America survived it's bout with slavery. Israel will survive it's own dark chapter in human-rights abuses as well, but it may have to go through a darker period first.

I really hope that isn't the case, but racist policies and the bigots behind them don't cede power easily.

...we are doing such a great job of it oberliner......as long as you can prove you are " halachically Jewish " ...........

ref : http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4679728,00.html

Palestine.

It extended into areas that were very specifically not to become part of the Jewish state, most of the Arab population had been driven off, and those that were allowed to remain didn't get anything near equal rights. The non-rights of the Arab population has since then been given constitutional status, and to this day, Arab Israelis aren't allowed to hold full Israeli citizenship.

This new law is just another attempt to further disenfranchise Israeli Arabs, as it very specifically awards a set of rights to one ethnic group and makes them unavailable for another. Fortunately, the law is useless - it's only a declaration that Israel wishes for an apartheid state, not an actual step towards it.

It's racist of course, but it's not the apartheid Basic Law that could have been.