Netanyahu says Jewish state bill doesn’t contradict equal rights

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu throws his support behind the latest version of the Jewish state bill which, for the first time in Israeli law, would enshrine Israel as “the national home of the Jewish people.”

Speaking at his weekly Likud faction meeting, Netanyahu says the bill, which passed in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation yesterday, “flies in the face of everyone who tries to deny our right to Israel.”

Slamming criticism that the proposal is discriminatory to Israel’s Arab and other minority populations, Netanyahu says “there is absolutely no contradiction between the Jewish state bill and equal rights in Israel.”

According to the language of the proposal, while every individual has the right “to preserve his culture, heritage, language and identity,” the right to realize self-determination “is unique to the Jewish people.” In another controversial clause, Arabic would be relegated from an official language to one with “special status,” which would ensure its speakers the “right to accessible state services.”

Netanyahu says the bill will be brought to the Knesset within 60 days and he “expects all the Zionist parties to support it.”

— Raoul Wootliff