A week after National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party proposed a bill to assert Zionistic values in government policy, there has been no agreement on the final wording and the proposal has not yet been approved.
Israel Hayom obtained a copy of the bill with several amendments added following negotiations with the ultra-Orthodox factions, which rejected the original text.
As in the original version, IDF soldiers will be prioritized in government decisions, but now Torah study will be as well.
Government sources say that the bill was delayed because MK Aryeh Deri, head of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, initially opposed the inclusion of IDF soldiers in the bill, fearing it would harm the haredi sector.
Otzma Yehudit, in turn, refused to compromise on the inclusion of IDF soldiers in the bill, saying it was the proposal’s raison d’être.
Shas officials said they sought a balanced wording that would not cause a crisis within the public. Deri’s office said in a statement that he was not delaying the bill.
The proposal would make Zionist ideology the government’s principal driver when crafting policy and legislation and deciding state activity. Its goal is to give concrete expression to the Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, which the Knesset passed in 2018.
There is strong European and U.S. opposition to the initiative, but almost all ministers have announced support for it.
The Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People states: “The State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, in which it fulfills its natural, religious and historic right to self-determination.” The law adds that “the fulfillment of the right of national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.”
Accordingly, the law enshrined the state’s Jewish symbols and designated Jerusalem as its capital. It designated Hebrew as the country’s official language, with Arabic maintaining a special status to be used for the provision of state services to Arabic speakers. The law also set the Hebrew lunar calendar as the country’s official calendar, and officially recognized Independence Day and Jewish holidays, events and memorial days.
The law neither grants nor detracts from individual rights based on ethnicity or nationality, but became controversial due to its clear emphasis on the Jewishness of the state.
