Politics and Knesset
Education Minister and Jewish Home Party leader Naftali Bennett said the nation-state law “deeply hurt” the Druze community, an ethno-religious minority group in Israel, adding that the government must “find a way to heal this wound.”
The bill now holds weight as one of Israel’s “Basic Laws,” the highest level of legal authority, being that Israel has no official constitution.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated the new law as “a pivotal moment in the annals of Zionism and the State of Israel.”
The vote was taken from members of the House Committee and the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, and passed 8-7.
The amended version of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism adopted by Labour leaves out examples of anti-Semitism that relate to support for Israel.
Jewish Home Party co-authors of the bill, Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Shuli Mualem-Refaeli, said the law would also apply to institutions that attempt to delegitimize Israel abroad.
At a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, several Labour MPs attacked the move to adopt a new definition of anti-Semitism backed by General Secretary Jennie Formby.
Right-wing politicians call Knesset member Ahmad Tibi “populist” and “hypocritical,” and back a measure that allows Jewish communities to keep non-Jews out.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the Foreign Ministry Director General to summon the E.U. ambassador for a second reprimand and also intends to take additional steps.
“In recent years, the country has turned into a nation of all its people, all of its infiltrators,” said Israel Tourism Minister Yariv Levin. “Everything that has to do with Jewish life became some sort of issue of inequality and discrimination. This is what the legislation seeks to fix.”
For Knesset caucus, declaring an end to Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the first step towards peace
The Israel Victory Project met this week in Israel’s parliament to present new data demonstrating that a majority of Israelis view the Oslo Accords, which called for direct negotiations of a two-state solution, as a failure. The question is: Now what?
Knesset member Yinon Azoulay of the Shas Party said on July 4 that Reform Jews “are not Jewish” and then blamed non-Jews for an earthquake felt earlier that day in northern Israel.
