Herzog: Jewish state bill not the Israel Herzl envisioned

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog criticizes the Jewish state bill, as formulated by Likud MK Avi Dichter, which was adopted by ministers yesterday, while praising a similar nation-state proposal by Likud MK Benny Begin.

Speaking at the plenum session on Herzl, Herzog lashes out at the government for “collecting files on journalists, threatening judges, and harming the independence of the legal system,” saying this was not the Israel Herzl envisioned.

“And in particular, in the model society [envisioned by Herzl], in the Jewish and democratic state, you don’t trample on the delicate balance between Jewish and democratic, as you are supporting in the Jewish state bill in the new version, as opposed to the precise, and correct version presented by Dr. MK Ze’ev Binyamin Begin in his Jewish state bill,” he says.

Earlier, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid said his opposition party would support Begin’s version of the bill.

Begin’s version of the bill is a paragraph-long declaration of the Jewish nature of the state. Dichter’s bill includes a number of controversial clauses, including downgrading Arabic from an official language to one of “special status.”

— Marissa Newman