Netanyahu backs ‘Jewish state’ bill, with revisions

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday gave his support to a contentious bill that would enshrine Israel as a Jewish state, though he said revisions would need to be made before the bill fulfilled its goal of lending “balance” to the judicial system.

Netanyahu’s statement came ahead of a ministerial debate on the measure, which seeks to anchor in law Israel’s definition as a Jewish state in the country’s Basic Laws. The version to be discussed by ministers Sunday also reportedly defines Israel’s democracy as subservient to its Jewish character and demotes Arabic from its official language status.

“Israel is a Jewish and democratic state,” Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting.

“The balance between these two things is necessary, also to balance our justice system, which certainly recognizes the democratic side, and will now need to recognize that we are the national state of the Jewish people.”

The bill “will undergo many changes and many discussions,” Netanyahu said, adding that the legislation will also ensure equality for all of Israel’s citizens.

The bill will be brought before the Ministerial Committee for Legislation by coalition chairman Ze’ev Elkin (Likud), who originally introduced it in 2011 along with then-Kadima MK Avi Dichter. It is thought highly unlikely to become law in its current form. Netanyahu proposed his own version of such legislation in May.

Elkin’s proposal is one of several different bills seeking to define Israel as a Jewish state that have been circling in the Knesset in recent years, none of which have made much progress in the plenum, and is considered to present the most extreme version of such a law.

The prime minister’s remarks as well as the bill itself drew fierce criticism from various left-wing and Arab MKs on Sunday.

MK Dov Khenin of the Hadash party called the proposed legislation a “provocative initiative” which aims to “subjugate the state’s democratic principles” to its Jewish ones.

Meretz MK Zahava Gal-on said that should the ministerial committee approve the bill, its members would be “accomplices in a crime against democracy” which would “transform Israel’s Arabs into second-class citizens.”

Meanwhile, the Arab Balad party said the bill “would pave the way for the enactment of racist and discriminatory laws against Arab citizens,” according to the Ynet news site.

Netanyahu also used the cabinet pulpit to continued to lash out at Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for inciting violence, despite a recent trilateral meeting between the Jordanian king, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Netanyahu, during which the sides agreed to a series of measures to calm tensions in the capital.

“Less than 24 hours after our meeting in Amman, the PA’s official media outlets called for a day of rage in Jerusalem [on Friday]. Abbas must stop the incitement which leads to violence,” he said.

“I call on Abbas to immediately stop this propaganda,” Netanyahu added.

The prime minister also termed the rumors that Israel was set to change the status quo at the Temple Mount “a gross lie.”

Palestinian leaders have used inflammatory language to warn against Israeli plans to change the status quo and allow Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount — something Israel has flatly and repeatedly denied.

Netanyahu is reportedly set to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Monday or Tuesday for further discussions on tensions surrounding the Temple Mount. The meeting will be the second one in less than a week, after the trilateral summit Thursday in Amman with the Jordanian monarch and Kerry.

Following Thursday’s meeting, Kerry said Israel and Jordan, which has custodial rights at the Temple Mount, had agreed to take steps to “de-escalate the situation” in Jerusalem and to “restore confidence.”

Kerry stressed that the United States would not lay out publicly the steps agreed to by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians to ease the tensions and violence.

Hours after Thursday’s summit, Israel announced that it would allow unrestricted access to the Temple Mount for Palestinian male and female worshipers of all ages for Friday prayers. Some 40,000 worshipers gathered and dispersed without incident, although there were demonstrations and protests outside Jerusalem, at West Bank flashpoints, and in several Israeli Arab towns. In previous weeks, Israel had limited access to the mount on Fridays to Muslim men under either 35 or 50, while not restricting Muslim women’s access.

The move came after weeks of unrest in Jerusalem and the West Bank, some of which has been focused on Israeli plans to step up building activity in the city’s eastern sector and by religious tensions at the Temple Mount.

Six Israelis have been killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks in recent weeks.

AFP and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.