{"id":1153,"date":"2017-06-19T14:21:05","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T14:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/new\/?p=1153"},"modified":"2017-07-14T08:23:11","modified_gmt":"2017-07-14T08:23:11","slug":"israeli-prime-minister-bows-to-a-demand-of-the-right-prompting-criticisms-of-racism-and-weakening-democratic-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/2017\/06\/19\/israeli-prime-minister-bows-to-a-demand-of-the-right-prompting-criticisms-of-racism-and-weakening-democratic-values\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli prime minister bows to a demand of the right, prompting criticisms of racism and weakening democratic values."},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
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\u00a0Jerusalem<\/span><\/b> \u2014 Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, says he will introduce a law defining Israel as a Jewish state, giving high-level support to a controversial idea that has long been a demand of the Israeli right.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The state has never before officially defined itself as Jewish, though legislators have introduced bills to that effect over the past few years.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In a speech on Thursday, Netanyahu called Israel\u2019s Jewish identity \u201cthe most basic ingredient of our national life\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is my intention to submit a Basic Law to the Knesset that would provide a constitutional anchor for Israel\u2019s status as the national state of the Jewish people,\u201d he said in Tel Aviv\u2019s Independence Hall, the site where David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the state of Israel in 1948.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Israel has never had a constitution; instead it has a series of \u201cBasic Laws,\u201d which are meant to someday be incorporated into a formal charter.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s unclear what practical impact the law would have: 66 years after independence, Israelis still disagree sharply on how a \u201cJewish state\u201d should be governed.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The measure could simply be a symbolic declaration. But it could also go much further, requiring Israeli courts, for example, to interpret the law according to halakha, Jewish religious law.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Regardless of Netanyahu\u2019s intent, the law would provide a basis for future governments to pass illiberal legislation.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cBehind these nice words, he may be hiding plans to put particular Jewish values as superior to democratic values,\u201d said Yedidia Stern, a vice president of the Israel Democracy Institute.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cFor example, if it means that Hebrew should be the only language of the country, the only formal language, then I\u2019m against it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Netanyahu\u2019s proposal has already received strong support from the right. Uri Ariel, the housing minister and a member of the conservative Jewish Home party, was quick to praise the prime minister. \u201cI congratulate [Netanyahu] for his support of this law,\u201d Ariel said. \u201cIt will pass in the Knesset. It has a majority.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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‘Racist’ law<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

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The most vocal opposition came from Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who said hours after Netanyahu\u2019s speech that she would oppose the law.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cI will continue to defend the values of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and will under no circumstances allow anyone to weaken its democratic values and subordinate them to Jewish ones,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mohammed Barakeh, a member of the Hadash party, called it a \u201cracist law\u201d that would discriminate against Palestinians, who make up one-fifth of the Israeli population.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The question of Israel\u2019s identity became a central one during nine months of US-brokered negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which stalled last week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Netanyahu insisted that the Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state as a precondition for talks, a demand rejected by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president. Critics said the demand was a ploy by Netanyahu to scupper negotiations.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Abbas reiterated in a speech on Saturday that he would \u201cnever\u201d grant Israel that recognition, saying that the PLO recognised Israel in 1993 and did not have to go further.<\/span><\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s speech came days after Palestinian towns were targeted in two \u201cprice tag\u201d attacks, in which car tyres were slashed and a star of David spray-painted on a mosque.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Jewish man was also arrested for giving the Roman Catholic bishop of Nazareth a letter which told Christians to leave Israel within a week or be killed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Source: Al Jazeera<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Jerusalem \u2014 Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, says he will introduce a law defining Israel as a Jewish state, giving high-level support to a controversial idea that has long been a demand of the Israeli right. The state has never before officially defined itself as Jewish, though legislators have introduced bills to that effect<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1153"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5334,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions\/5334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}