Knesset mulls 'Jewish state' bill

MKs Dichter, Elkin present House with bill which aims to cement Israel's Jewish nature in Basic Laws

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4103870,00.html

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"MKs Avi Dichter (Kadima) and Zeev Elkin (Likud) stand to present the Knesset with a bill seeking to cement Israel's status as a Jewish state and the Jewish people's homeland by law.

The two will present the bill, titled "basic law: The Jewish state," to the House on Wednesday afternoon."

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"The bill addresses various State characteristics, including language, State symbols, national holidays, the flag and the national anthem.

Dichter said that the bill "grants constitutional status to State symbols, which will allow the courts to deflect various partitions – that claim the Jewish symbols of the state offend some citizens' sensibilities – in an easer manner; but they were included only to cement an existing situation by law."

One section of the bill which has already been defined as "highly volatile" and deals with the issue of language: The bill states that "Hebrew is the formal language of Israel," defining the Arabic language as having "special status" only."


Knesset bill would formalize second-class status for Arab citizens

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New Knesset bill aims to have “Jewish nature” of state preferred over democracy, cancel official status of Arabic, and have Jewish law “guide” courts’ rulings

"There is one talking point repeated in every hasbara (the Hebrew term for state sponsored propaganda) talk given by an Israeli representative, or in every booklet your campus’ Jewish Agency representative might hand you. It has to do with “the full rights” of Palestinian citizens in Israel, including the status of Arabic as an official language, and the equality of all Israeli citizens under the law. This is the heart of “the only democracy in the Middle East” claim.

Those who are familiar with Israeli society, know that Arab citizens are discriminated against in many ways: Some of these ways are formal—like the new bill allowing segregated communities; the law against family unification of Arab citizens; the absentees’ property laws, and more—while other are a matter of practice, such as the fact that some government agencies won”t hire Arabs, or the that the courts mete out harsher sentences to Arab citizens convicted of the same crimes as Jewish citizens.

Yet a new bill, signed by members of opposition and coalition alike, aims to strip Israel even of the appearance of democracy. If passed (it has a fair chance), this law will determine that in any case of contradiction between democratic values and the Jewish nature of the state, the Jewish element will prevail. More specifically, the bill aims to cancel the status of Arabic as one of Israel’s two official languages; it orders the state to develop communities for Jews only; and in a passage that seems to be taken from the Iranian constitution, declares that when there is no law referring to a certain case, courts should rule in the spirit of halakha, or Jewish religious jurisprudence."

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