Haaretz: Israel Passes Controversial Jewish Nation-state Bill After Stormy Debate/الشرق الأوسط/إسرائيل دولة قومية يهودية/62 عضواً في الكنيست أيّدوا القانون و55 عارضوه

Read The Full Jewish Nation State Law
Jerusalem Post/July 19/18

The controversial law passed a final vote in the Knesset overnight Wednesday.
The following is the complete text of the Jewish Nation-State Law, which passed a final vote in the Knesset overnight Wednesday, with links to The Jerusalem Post reporting on the discussions about its various elements.
Basic Law: Israel – The nation state of the Jewish people
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1. The State of Israel
a) Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people in which the state of Israel was established.
b) The state of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, in which it actualizes its natural, religious, and historical right for self-determination.
c) The actualization of the right of national self-determination in the state of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.
2. National symbols of the State of Israel
a) The name of the state is Israel.
b) The flag of the state is white, two blue stripes near the edges, and a blue Star of David in the center.
c) The symbol of the state is the Menorah with seven branches, olive leaves on each side, and the word Israel at the bottom.
d) The national anthem of the state is “Hatikvah”
e) [Further] details concerning the issue of state symbols will be determined by law.
3. [The] unified and complete [city of] Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
4. The Language of the State of Israel
a) Hebrew is the language of the state.
b) The Arabic language has a special status in the state; the regulation of the Arab language in state institutions or when facing them will be regulated by law.
c) This clause does not change the statues given to the Arabic language before the basic law was created.
5. The state will be open to Jewish immigration and to the gathering of the exiled.
6. The Diaspora
a) The state will labor to ensure the safety of sons of the Jewish people and its citizens who are in trouble and captivity due to their Jewishness or their citizenship.
b) The state will act to preserve the cultural, historical and religious legacy of the Jewish people among the Jewish diaspora.
7. The state views Jewish settlement as a national value and will labor to encourage and promote its establishment and development.
8. The Hebrew calendar is the official calendar of the state and alongside it the secular calendar will serve as an official calendar. The usage of the Hebrew calendar and of the secular calendar will be determined by law.
9. National Holidays
a) Independence Day is the official holiday of the state.
b) The Memorial Day for those who fell in the wars of Israel and the Memorial Day for the Holocaust and heroism are official memorial days of the state.
10. Saturday and the Jewish Holidays are the official days of rest in the state. Those who are not Jewish have the right to honor their days of rest and their holidays. Details concerning these matters will be determined by law.
11. This Basic Law may not be altered except by a Basic Law that gained the approval of the majority of the Knesset members.

Israel Passes Controversial Jewish Nation-state Bill After Stormy Debate
Jonathan Lis and Noa Landau/Haaretz/July 19/18

62 lawmakers vote in favor of the bill after a stormy debate ■ Arab lawmakers tossed out after they tear bill in protest, call it ‘apartheid law’

The Knesset passed early Thursday a controversial bill that officially defines Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people and asserts that “the realization of the right to national self-determination in Israel is unique to the Jewish people,” with 62 lawmakers voting in favor of the legislation and 55 opposing it.

Two lawmakers, Benny Begin (Likud) and Orly Levy-Abekasis (independent) abstained.

The nation-stae law also includes clauses stating that a “united Jerusalem” is the capital of Israel and that Hebrew is the country’s official language. Another says that “the state sees the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation.”It passed after a long and stormy debate that began in the afternoon, with lawmakers voting on hundreds of clauses presented by the opposition that objected to differents parts of the bill.

Immediately after the law passed, Arab lawmakers tore copies in protest, and were subsequently removed from the Knesset plenum hall. Lawmaker Ayman Odeh, chairman of the Joint List, released a statement saying that Israel “declared it does not want us here” and that it had “passed a law of Jewish supremacy and told us that we will always be second-class citiziens.” Speaking moments after the bill passed into law, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “This is a defining moment – long live the State of Israel.”

Netanyahu further said that “122 years after Herzl made his vision known, with this law we determined the founding principle of our existence. Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people, and respects the rights of all of its citizens.”The prime minister also said that “in the Middle East, only Israel respects [rights]. This is our country, the Jewish state. In recent years there have been those who have tried to undermine that and question the principles of our existence. Today we made it into law: This is the country, the language, the anthem and flag.”

As they left the Knesset plenum, Arab MKs from the Joint List party confronted Netanyahu. MK Ahmad Tibi and MK Ayeda Touma-Souliman yelled at Netanyahu: “You passed an apartheid law, a racist law.” MK Tibi lashed at Netanyahu: “Why are you afraid of the Arabic language?” The premier retorted by saying: “How dare you talk this way about the only democracy in the Middle East?”

Opposition head Isaac Herzog also spoke up at the plenum, saying that “it’s a little sad to me that the last speech I make will be against this kind of backdrop. The question is whether the law will harm or benefit Israel. History will determine. I really hope that we won’t find the fine balance between a Jewish and democratic state to be hurt.”The sponsor of the bill, MK Avi Dichter, said during debates that took place prior to the vote that “unlike the disinformation and fake news that were tossed around [regarding the bill], this basic law doesn’t hurt the culture of minorities living in Israel, doesn’t hurt their sabbaticals and holidays and certainly doesn’t hurt the Arabic language, which remains a mother tongue for 1.5 million of Israel’s citizens.”

The draft bill the Knesset voted on is fundamentally different form the version the coalition had sought to advance in the past decade. Its main clauses were moderated following pressure within the coalition ranks and beyond.

Initially, the bill was intended to significantly limit the discretion of Supreme Court justices’ decisions, requiring them to set the state’s Jewish character above its democratic character in rulings where the two clashed. This clause was removed from the bill already in May. The most controversial clause, which appeared to pave the way for the creation of communities segregated by nationality or religion, was removed from the legislation earlier this week.

The nation-state law establishes as a basic law, or quasi-constitutional law, a set of values, some of which already appear in existing laws. The law stipulates that Israel is the Jewish nation’s historic homeland and that this nation has the singular right to national self-determination in it. The law anchors the flag, menorah, “Hatikva” anthem, Hebrew calendar, Independence Day and Jewish holidays as national symbols.

The law states that the “whole and united” Jerusalem is the state’s capital, which appears today in Basic Law: Jerusalem. The nation-state law further grants the status of an official language only to Hebrew. Another controversial clause stipulates that the state will invest resources in preserving Israel’s affiliation to world Jewry, but not in Israel. This wording was demanded by the ultra-Orthodox parties to prevent the state from linking up with the Reform and Conservative communities in Israel.

Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, released in response: “The nation-state law is a colonial law with features of apartheid, which is prohibited by international law because it contradicts the international treaty that bans apartheid crimes. It creates various avenues for segregation in land and housing and incentives based on the principle of ‘advancing Jewish settlement’ both in civil life and in obtaining citizenship based on the law of return and in language and in cultural rights in the name of self-definition.”

As part of the protest against the law, Peace Now activists waved a black flag in the Knesset balcony during the debate, until security guards made them leave the room. Joint List chairman Ayman Odeh also raised a black flag during the debate against the legislation. “As [the 1956 massacre] in Kafr Qassem was a blatantly illegal order, with a black flag over it, so is a black flag hoisted over this evil law,” he said.

J Street’s president and founder, Jeremy Ben-Ami, harshly criticized the nation-state bill and Netanyahu’s government: “It was born in sin, its only purpose is to send a message to the Arab community, the LGBT community and other minorities in Israel, that they are not and never will be equal citizens. Two months ago we celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, where it was written that the State of Israel ‘will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or gender.’ Today Netanyahu’s government is trying to ignore those words and the values that they represent.”

On Monday, Netanyahu said the bill was “very important to guarantee the foundations of our existence, which is Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people” – though critics say he is mainly keen to drum up support before the next Knesset election, due by November next year.

الشرق الأوسط/إسرائيل «دولة قومية يهودية»/62 عضواً في الكنيست أيّدوا القانون و55 عارضوه
القدس: «/الشرق الأوسط/19 تموز/18»/
أقرّ البرلمان الاسرائيلي اليوم الخميس قانونا ينص على ان اسرائيل هي “الدولة القومية للشعب اليهودي” وأن “حق تقرير المصير فيها حصري للشعب اليهودي فقط”، ما اثار جدلا واتهامات بأن هذا القانون عنصري تجاه الاقلية العربية التي تعيش داخل اسرائيل. وتم تبني مشروع القانون بتأييد 62 صوتا في مقابل 55، وهو ينص على ان اللغة العبرية ستصبح اللغة الرسمية في اسرائيل بينما ينزع هذه الصفة عن اللغة العربية، وتعتبر الدولة “تطوير الاستيطان اليهودي قيمة قومية، وتعمل على تشجيعه ودعم إقامته وتثبيته”. ورحب رئيس الوزراء الاسرائيلي بنيامين نتنياهو بتبني النص، وقال بعد التصويت: “هذه دولتنا، دولة اليهود، ولغتنا اللغة العبرية، وحق وجودنا فيها، ونشيدنا هو هتيكفا (الامل)”، متحدثا عن “لحظة حاسمة في تاريخ اسرائيل”.

في المقابل، عمد نواب القائمة المشتركة العرب بنهاية التصويت الى تمزيق نص القانون احتجاجا، ما دفع رئيس الكنيست الى طردهم من القاعة، بينما كانوا يصرخون “أبارتهايد، أبارتهايد”، في إشارة الى الفصل العنصري. ومن المبادئ الاساسية للقانون ان “أرض إسرائيل هي الوطن التاريخي للشعب اليهودي”، وان “دولة إسرائيل هي الدولة القومية للشعب اليهودي، وفيها يمارس حقه الطبيعي والثقافي والديني والتاريخي لتقرير المصير”. وينص أيضاً على ان “القدس الكاملة والموحدة هي عاصمة اسرائيل”. ويقدّر عدد عرب اسرائيل بمليون و400 الف نسمة يتحدرون من 160 الف فلسطيني ظلوا في أراضيهم بعد قيام اسرائيل عام 1948. وتبلغ نسبتهم 17,5 في المائة من السكان ويشكون من التمييز، خصوصا في مجالي الوظائف والاسكان.

وقال النائب يوسف جبارين عضو لجنة الدستور بعد التصويت: “الدولة تتصرف كحركة تهويدية وكولونيالية تواصل تهويد الأرض وسلب اصحابها الاصليين حقوقهم”. وشدد على “خطورة هذا القانون”، مؤكدا “التصدي لأيّ ممارسات عنصرية تنتج عنه”.ورفع النائب العربي أيمن عودة رفع راية سوداء خلال الجلسة للتنديد بـ “موت الديمقراطية”. وقال: “تريدون القول لنا إن الدولة ليست لنا، ولكن لا شيء يمنع الحقيقة الطبيعية بأننا اهل هذا الوطن ولا وطن لنا سواه”. وتوقف عودة عند وجود 13 نائبا من عرب اسرائيل في الكنيست، متهما اسرائيل بالتصرف كـ “الفاشيين في التاريخ تجاه أقليات بدأت تقوى وتفرض ذاتها بقوة”.

ودان أمين سرّ اللجنة التنفيذية لمنظمة التحرير الفلسطينية صائب عريقات إقرار الكنيست “قانون القومية”، مؤكدا أن إسرائيل “نجحت في قوننة الابارتهايد وجعل نفسها نظام فصل عنصري بالقانون”. ورأت عضو اللجنة التنفيذية رئيسة دائرة الإعلام فيها حنان عشراوي أن إقرار القانون بالقراءتين الثانية والثالثة “يؤكد أن دولة الاحتلال تشرع العنصرية والتمييز من أجل القضاء على الوجود الفلسطيني”. وأضافت أن “محاولات دولة الاستعمار العنصرية تثبيت مفاهيم الاحتلال والاستيطان ونظام الفصل العنصري، وإلغاء الوجود الفلسطيني، عبثية ولن تمر، وسيبقى الشعب الفلسطيني صاحب الحق والأرض والرواية والحيز والمكان”.

وأكدت حركة “حماس”، من جهتها، أن إسرائيل تستهدف الوجود الفلسطيني بإقرارها قانون القومية. وصرح الناطق باسم الحركة فوزي برهوم أن “إقرار (…) قانون القومية شرعنة رسمية للعنصرية الإسرائيلية، واستهداف خطير للوجود الفلسطيني وحقه التاريخي في أرضه، وسرقة واضحة لممتلكاته ومقدراته”. وأضاف أن “كل هذه القرارات والقوانين الباطلة لن تمر ولن تغير من الواقع شيئاً، وسيبقى الشعب الفلسطيني صاحب الحق والسيادة على هذه الأرض”.