Bennett threatens to block Jewish state bill

9 July 2018, 4:32 pm

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Prime Minister Netanyahu wants to push the controversial “Jewish state” bill forward to become law in the next two weeks, but one of his coalition partners, the Jewish Home party, announces it will vote against the bill unless a controversial clause is reinstated.

The clause, which asserts the primacy of Jewish jurisprudence, was removed from the draft legislation at the request of Yisrael Beytenu and other parties in the coalition, and was not included in the version of the bill that passed its first reading.

The bill, long in the works, would enshrine the state’s Jewish character in the country’s constitutional Basic Laws. It passed its first reading in the Knesset in May.