The Nation-State Bill is the Apartheid Road

The Nation-State Bill is on the road to be debated in the Knesset. It is the total opposite of the Declaration of Israel’s Independence that states that “ it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

The Nation-State Bill makes it legal to establish “Jewish Only” settlements and to exclude non-Jewish citizens of Israel. This bears a strong similarity to apartheid South Africa’s Group Areas Act of 1950 created by the apartheid government of South Africa and assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas. An effect of the law was to prevent non-whites from living in the most developed areas.

What would happen if the US or Europe would legalize the prohibition of Jews living in certain towns? No doubt Israel would be in the forefront in accusations of anti-Semitism against these countries for passing these racist, anti-Semitic laws and rightly so. However, in Israel, there appears to be a growing racist phobia against non-Jews, especially amongst Netanyahu’s sycophants in the Knesset that would ensure a comfortable majority in the second and third reading of this despicable Bill if it reaches the final readings.  

In other words, it negates Israel’s Declaration of Independence of 1948.

"If the value of equality is not anchored in the legislation alongside the other enumerated national characteristics of the state, the law may eventually erode Israel's democratic character."

The following illustration of the Nation-State Bill  comes from Haaretz

The ramifications and interpretations of what is a non-Jew can be defined as Arabs of Muslim or Christian faith, LGBT Community, Reform and Conservative (Masorti) Jews. There are many MKs in the Netanyahu Regime, who claim that Reform and Conservative Jews are not Jews. These MKs are mostly members of ultra-Orthodox Parties (Shas and Yahadut Hatorah) and even members of the right-wing religious Zionist Bayit Ha-Yehudi Party.

PM Netanyahu is reported to be determined to get this Bill passed before the upcoming general elections in 2019. He is desperate to get the extremist right-wing votes as well to increase his party majority in the Knesset.

President Reuven Rivlin and Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit oppose this racist Bill as well as top members of the Law community.

If this Bill in its present format gets overwhelming support in the Knesset then Israel’s democracy will be compromised. The damage to Israel’s image will be great and it will be on the road to becoming an apartheid, fascist state.

The Israeli Electorate is becoming increasingly right-wing and it will not be surprising that King Bibi Netanyahu will increase his support. As it is today, the present Netanyahu Government with its sycophants is damaging Israel’s democracy.

The present Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, has already started her campaign to weaken Israel’s Law Courts by appointing judges whose views are conservative and serve her political agenda. There are members in her party with extremist right-wing MK views such as Bezalel Smotrich that have a lot of clout in the present government. Smotrich and Shaked are on record for demanding the release of a minor who has spent two and a half years in prison for his part in the in the July 2015 Duma arson murders of three members of the Dawabshe family. Smotrich’s ideology is very similar to the well known right-wing racist, the Late Rabbi Meir Kahane - the founder of the neo-fascist Kach Movement.

The next stage will be censorship of culture that is not supportive of the present government right-wing agenda. Israel’s passionate, Miri Regev, Minister of Culture and Sport is doing a great job in destroying Israeli Cinema projects as well as theatre productions not conforming to her political views and those of the Netanyahu Likud shenanigans in the Knesset.

Press freedom and media will be the next victims of draconian measures. As the situation is today, people who support NGOs such as Breaking the Silence, B’tzelem, Peace Now and do not support the illegal settler movement and their unofficial allies Price Tag (pyromaniacs who burn and destroy Palestinian property) are ostracised and viewed as traitors. These are the inevitable measures that may follow as a result of the Nation-State Bill if passed.

The so-called mantra of Israel being an apartheid state will become a truth.