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Israeli Parliament Passes Highly Controversial Nation-State Law

by VOA News

   Israel's parliament early Thursday passed a highly controversial law
   that states only Jews in Israel have the right to self-determination
   and encourages Jewish settlement.

   The so-called nation-state law passed 62-55 after nearly eight hours of
   fierce debate and harsh criticism, especially from Arab members of
   parliament.

   Some Arab lawmakers angrily tore up copies of the bill, calling it the
   "death of democracy" and "peak of racism" in Israel.

   But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the bill as a "defining
   moment in the annals of Zionism and the history of the state of
   Israel."

   Seventy years after the Jewish state was founded, the law declares,
   "Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and they have an
   exclusive right to national self-determination in it."

   But it also secures the right of all Israeli residents to preserve
   their heritage without consideration of religion.

   "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 its citizens," Netanyahu said.

   But despite Netanyahu's assurance that Arab civil rights would not be
   violated, Arab lawmakers say the law includes a provision that
   downgrades Arabic from an official language to one with "special
   status." They also say it gives Jews the right to build exclusively
   Jewish communities.

   One parliamentarian called it an "apartheid" law and accused the
   government of being scared of the Arabic language.

   Israeli Arabs are guaranteed full civil rights. But many complain of
   discrimination, especially when it comes to receiving government
   services.