BICOM

The Knesset’s summer session began yesterday, reviving political disputes from the last session and facing a list of explosive issues to be discussed.

Speaking to his Likud faction before the start of the session, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “We continue to lead Israel in our path, the path of the Likud. We will maintain our strong advocacy for Israeli interests, protecting the national dignity and the truth of Israel.”

Some of the disagreements that Netanyahu’s government faces are between coalition partners.  Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Netanyahu recently came head-to-head over the establishment of the new Israel Public Broadcasting Authority (IPBC), leading to the IPBC’s launch being pushed back twice.

But the focus of yesterday’s clash was the coalition’s intent to promote the nationality bill, submitted by MK Avi Dichter of Likud and approved on Sunday at the Ministerial Committee for Legislation. The proposed bill enshrines as a Basic Law Israel’s status as a Jewish and democratic state, defines Hebrew as the official language while demoting Arabic to a language with “special status”.

The government announced yesterday that it would submit a nationality bill of its own within 60 days.

Speaking of the bill at the Likud meeting, Netanyahu said: “The bill institutionalises the fact that the State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people in its historic homeland … there is no contradiction between this bill and equal rights for all of Israel’s citizens.”

During the opening session of the Knesset, Opposition Chairman and Labour leader Isaac Herzog said that no political gain or the possibility of elections justifies “violating what is promised in the Declaration of Independence and does not justify incitement against the minority that lives among us”.

Speaking after the session, President Reuven Rivlin said: “[David] Ben-Gurion established the State of Israel after 2,000 years, without a nationality law. Israel didn’t need such laws, we simply needed to take action. This incredible document, the Declaration of Independence, is one of the most important things we have and we must not diminish it by passing laws that can undermine its essence.”