Coalition Chairman MK Ze’ev Elkin (Likud), one of the authors of the Jewish State bill, praised the government for voting in favor of it Sunday and thanked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for supporting it. The bill will be brought before the Knesset for a preliminary vote Wednesday.
“No maneuvering will prevent this, nor will attempts by those who are eager to establish a Palestinian national state but refuse to define the state of Israel as the Jewish national state,” he said, in a reference to Justice Minister Tzipi Livni’s attempts to stall the bill by refusing to discuss it in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.
“I am proud to be a citizen in the stateof the Jews and that I am a Zionist, and no attacks by politicians or the press will change this,” added Elkin.
Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett wrote on his Facebook page: “The Jewish State bill that we demanded in the coalition agreement with us will save the residents of southern Tel Aviv from the infiltrators.”
“The next time that the law for stopping the infiltrators is brought before the High Court for Justice,” he explained, “the High Court will have to include in its considerations the fact that Israel is ‘the national home of the Jewish people’ and not just ‘Human Dignity and Liberty’. This is important news for the residents of southern Tel Aviv and the entire state of Israel.”
Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) accused Livni of carrying out “sabotage” in her attempts to torpedo the bill.
‘Destroying the country’
MK Dov Khanin of the ultra-leftist Hadash party said that Netanyahu has “declared war not only on the Arab citizens but also against the democratic space in Israel.” He accused the prime minister of leading to “confrontation and disaster.”
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) accused Netanyahu of proposing the bill as part of a political deal – possibly hinting at an agreement between Netanyahu and Bennett. If the bill is not part of such a deal, she then added, “please postpone Wednesday’s debate and hold a real discussion with us regarding substance, before you destroy the country.”
Health Minister Yael German (Yesh Atid) warned that the law “harms our children, who want to live in a democratic state.” It also harms world Jewry, she said, likening it to “a finger in the eye of Israel’s Arabs.”
Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid said that the bill is one that David Ben Gurion “would not have approved, [Menachem] Begin would have opposed, and [Ze’ev] Jabotinsky would not have agreed to.”
Yesh Atid ministers said MK Elkin was “the tail wagging the dog.”
