Israel approves loyalty oath bill
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Israel's cabinet on Sunday passed a controversial bill that requires non-Jews applying for Israeli citizenship to vow loyalty to "the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."
The change was part of a coalition deal between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Yisrael Beitenu party, led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
The amendment, suggested by Justice Minister Yaakov Ne'eman to be added to the country's Law of Citizenship passed the 30-member cabinet easily, 22 to 8, after several hours of deliberation.
All five Labor ministers led by Defense Minister and Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak voted against the bill, as did three Likud ministers.
The ruling would largely affect Palestinians or other non-Jews entering Israel, marrying or seeking citizenship, a proposal that has irked many, who see it as a thwarting Palestinian aspirations to draw closer to Israeli Arab brethren.
Barak, who had wanted to add a reference saying, "would not harm the Arab minority," to the Declaration of Independence, said such an addition "would be the best way to reflect the fundamental values of the State of Israel."
Labor Knesset (Israeli parliament) member Issac Herzog said on Saturday that strong support for the bill showed that "fascism was devouring the margins of the society," according to a report of the local daily Ha'aretz. "We are on a most dangerous slippery slope," he warned.
"The State of Israel is the national state of the Jewish people and it is a democratic state for all its citizenship," Netanyahu told ministers at the weekly cabinet session, according to a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.
"Jews and non-Jews enjoy equality and full rights," he said, adding that those wishing to become a part of the state needed, in his words, to recognize that Israel is the "only democracy in the Middle East," and the "only Jewish state in the world."
During the course of the discussion, Ne'eman suggested changes in the draft that would require both Jews and non-Jews alike to pledge their allegiance to Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state," the Ha'aretz reported.
The bill will now move to the Knesset Ministerial Committee on Legislation for further discussion and is expected to come up for a second vote in two to three weeks.
National Union Knesset member Arieh Eldad said on Thursday that Netanyahu's step showed his "understanding that we have to demand from ourselves the same thing we demand of the Palestinians and the world."
But, Eldad said he hopes Netanyahu's decision isn't a cover while "preparing to bulldoze settlements in Judea and Samaria, and cut down entire parts of Israeli society on his way to forming a Palestinian state in the West Bank."
"I hope that Netanyahu's support is a payoff to Lieberman, so that the prime minister will be able to extend the freeze without breaking apart his coalition," a Labor minister told Ha'aretz, anonymously.
Israeli Arab leaders on Thursday were quoted as calling their own government "racist," and slamming what they saw as the bill's prejudice against Israel's Arab minority.
"The State of Israel has reached the height of fascism," Haneen Zoabi of the Balad party said. Zoabi was on board the Mavi Marmara in May when the Turkish ship was raided by Israeli naval commandos.
"It's not surprising that this law is being promoted. It fits with other racist and anti-democratic bills that have been raised in the Knesset these days," said Zoabi, who supported the blockade-busting flotilla and later lost her Knesset privileges including a diplomatic passport over her open flotilla support.
"The government, in its racism and stupidity, is pushing the Arab citizens into a corner, and the result will be destructive," Zoabi said, according to The Jerusalem Post.
"The decision to make citizens announce their loyalty to Israel as a Jewish State is populist, lacks leadership, and its purpose is to make the Arabs' lowly position legally permanent," Ahmed Tibi of the Ta'al United Arab said.
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