Preparing for a “Jewish State” bill to go before the Knesset, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to reassure the Druze minority that they will suffer no loss of rights.
Meeting Druze community leaders on Wednesday, Netanyahu expressed his condolences over the recent deaths of two Druze police officers in attacks by Palestinians in Jerusalem.
He then implicitly linked the condolences to a defence of his proposed legislation, which enshrine Israel’s identity as a “Jewish State” in the country’s constitutional Basic Law:
You are our very flesh. You are an organic part of Israeli society. Your heroic policemen and soldiers have fallen in order to defend the state and all its citizens, but we will defend your rights and your security.
There is a deep emotional commitment here that found expression in the crowds who came to the funeral. This emotionally underscored what Israeli citizens feel and what I feel.
And the Prime Minister also used the occasion to promote his challenge to Palestinians and international foes like Iran: “This is our fight against radical Islam.”
On Sunday, the Netanyahu Cabinet voted to put the Jewish State legislation to the Knesset for a decision; however, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who opposes the bill, mobilised support to get a delay of a week.
Netanyahu said during a press conference with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka in Jerusalem on Wednesday:
Israel is a democratic state, as it was and always will be.
I don’t know a country that is more democratic, or a more vibrant democracy than Israel in the world, certainly not in our region. What is being challenged today is Israel’s existence as the nation-state of Jewish people, and therefore we will anchor in the law this national right of the Jewish people alongside a guarantee of individual rights for all its citizens.
(Featured Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO)
