Members of the Druze community
Israeli Druze Members of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) announced that they will lodge an appeal against a recent law recognizing Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people”.
Approved by Knesset on Thursday, the legislation also states that a “united Jerusalem” is the capital of Israel and that Hebrew is the country's official language, stripping Arabic of its earlier designation as an official language while recognizing its “special status.”
According to Maariv daily on Sunday, three MKs have decided to object the controversial law at the Supreme Court.
“I have no problem with the Jews and the fact that Israel is the state of the Jews,” MK Akram Hasson from Kulanu Party told Maariv.
He went on asking:" What about the Druze, who sacrificed and fought for Israel's sake, 240 of whom were killed and more than 1,200 injured during their service in the army?"
The Druze community has been living in northern Israel since 1948 and serve in the obligatory service of the Israeli army and consider themselves Israelis above all else. Exception to that is the Druze of Syrian Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in 1967, which remained bound to their Arab identity.
Egypt on Saturday said a new Israeli law giving Jews the exclusive right to self-determination in the country undermined the chances for peace in the Middle East and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.The law, which was passed on Thursday, has drawn rebuke from the European Union and was denounced by the Palestinian Authority and Arab citizens of Israel as racist legislation.Presidential spox: Israel seeks to legalize occupation‘Jewish state’ law sparks outrage among Jews"The Arab Republic of Egypt announces...its rejection of the law passed by the Israeli Knesset on the "national state for the Jewish people" law ... for its ramifications that consecrate the concept of occupation and racial segregation," the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement."It undermines the chances for achieving peace and reaching a just and comprehensive solution for the Palestinian issue," it said.It said the law would also have a potential impact on the right of Palestinians displaced from their homes in 1948 when Israel was founded, and their descendants, to return to their homes under United Nations resolutions.Four Palestinians in Gaza Strip killed by Israeli forcesEgypt in 1979 became the first Arab country to forge a peace treaty with Israel under the U.S.-sponsored Camp David accord that provided for the Jewish state to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula.But relations between two countries remained lukewarm, with Egypt demanding that Israel quit other lands it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, including the Syrian Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza Strip and Arab East Jerusalem.On Friday, Egypt's al-Azhar Mosque, the most prestigious Sunni Muslim institution, denounced the Israeli law calling it "a step that reflects repugnant racism".
Israel's Jewish nation-state law undermines Middle East peace: Egypt
A recently-approved Israeli law that recognizes Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people” has invited a storm of condemnations and outrage in Israel and among Jewish groups.Approved by Knesset (Israel’s parliament) on Thursday, the legislation also states that a “united Jerusalem” is the capital of Israel and that Hebrew is the country's official language, stripping Arabic of its earlier designation as an official language while recognizing its “special status.”Israeli forces arrest, torture Palestinian youth with Down syndromeIsraeli army shells Hamas post in Gaza after truceTamar Zandberg, chairwoman of the left-wing Meretz Party, described the law as “shameful”.“Zionism is no longer a national movement, but a forceful nationalism that humiliates the minority and establishes racial supremacy,” she said.Opposition leader Isaac Herzog said “it is sad that the last speech for him as the head of opposition will be against this backdrop.”Turkey’s MHP leader blasts Israel’s ‘Jewish state’ law“History only will determine whether the law will benefit Israel or not,” he said.Former foreign minister Tzipi Livni said the legislation was only to benefit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.“Netanyahu wants the law for his fight,” said Livni, a member of the Zionist Union.Her party, the largest opposition party with 24 seats in Knesset, had voted against the law during its three readings.Netanyahu has earlier hailed the legislation, describing its passage as a “defining moment for Zionism and Israel.”ColonialAdalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel has decried the legislation as “colonial” and “features key elements of apartheid”.“The law guarantees the ethnic-religious character of Israel as exclusively Jewish and entrenches the privileges enjoyed by Jewish citizens, while simultaneously anchoring discrimination against Palestinian citizens and legitimizing exclusion, racism, and systemic inequality,” the NGO said in a statement.It said the law further violates absolute prohibitions under international law which “proclaims practices of apartheid, including legislation, as a crime against humanity”.Palestinian experts slam Israel’s ‘Jewish State’ law‘Extremist’ Israeli legislation draws storm of outrage“The new law constitutionally enshrines the identity of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people only despite the 1.5 million Palestinian citizens of the state,” it added.New Israel Fund a U.S.-based non-profit organization, described the legislation as “tribalism as its worst.”"It is a slap in the face of Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel," it said in a statement."Legislation that identifies first- and second-class citizens has no place in a democracy and danger to Israel’s future,” it added.Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the head of Union of Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish denomination around the world, said the law would do an “enormous damage” to Israel.The American Jewish Committee, a prominent Jewish advocacy groups in the United States, for its part, said it was disappointed by the law.“It puts at risk the commitment of Israel's founders to build a country that is both Jewish and democratic,” it said.
‘Jewish state’ law sparks outrage among Jews