Druze coalition MK to Netanyahu: Stop the Jewish nation-state law

Yisrael Beytenu MK Hamad Amar, who is Druze, implores Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze the so-called Jewish nation-state bill or revise it to explicitly back “equality.”

“I, as a Druze, I speak in the name of nearly all the Druze: We have no problem with the definition of a Jewish and democratic state. Precisely the opposite: We are happy to live in a Jewish state,” says Amar, who is in the coalition.

But the proposed bill “discriminates against the people who protect the borders of the state,” he says, referring to Druze enlistment in the IDF.

He urges Netanyahu to revise the bill to incorporate clauses backing “equality” for all of Israel’s citizens.

The Yisrael Beytenu party earlier on Monday presented a list of objections to the bill, which Netanyahu is eager to advance. The party leader, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, has said the bill is an attempt to turn Israel into a “halachic [Jewish legal] state” and could hurt Israel’s minorities.

Netanyahu is attending a plenum session after 40 MKs demand a debate on the peace process.

— Marissa Newman