Israel Approves Controversial Bill Defining Country as Jewish Nation State
Israel's parliament has just passed the controversial "nation state" law that determines the country's identity as a Jewish state on Wednesday, July 18. It was a passage that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "defining moment" for the nation, even as opposition lawmakers criticized the bill.
It was a critical moment after years of delays, as the Knesset parliament passed "The Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People" with a vote of 62 to 55, with two absentees after an arduous eight hours of debate, according to the Times of Israel.
The bill was approved in its second and third readings in a session that ran overnight, just before the Parliament heads into its annual summer recess.
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The controversial nation-state bill has been likened to a constitution for the country, and it declares Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. It also sets up the nation's official calendar as one based on the Hebrew calendar, adopting its days of observance and Jewish holidays.
"A hundred and twenty-two years after [the founder of modern Zionism Theodore] Herzl made his vision known, with this law we determined the founding principle of our existence," Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a statement.
"Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people, and respects the rights of all of its citizens," he added.
Certain sections of its 11 provisions have been singled out as discriminatory, according to the opponents of the bill. One such provision is the part that designates Hebrew as the "state's language," overturning decades of recognition of Arabic and Hebrew as the two official languages of the state, according to BBC.
The American Jewish Committee said that it was "deeply disappointed" with the passage of the Basic Law bill, pointing out that the provisions "appear to work against the government's ongoing efforts to encourage the use of Arabic, given Israel's location in the Middle East."
