‘You cannot be a democracy and not a state of all its citizens’


Jamal Zahalka on what the rejection of the ‘State of all its Citizens’ bill means for Israel

MK Jamal Zahalka

Yumna Patel writes in Mondoweiss, and interviews Jamal Zahalka, “Last month, the Presidium of the Israeli Knesset voted to disqualify a proposed bill that calld for Israel “to be defined as a state of all its citizens” before it even reached the Knesset floor for deliberation. The bill, entitled “Basic Law: A Country of All Its Citizens,” was submitted by MKs Jamal Zahalka, Haneen Zoabi and Joumah Azbarg of the Balad party of the Joint List political bloc. It called for the state of Israel to treat its Jewish and Palestinian citizens equally, and to recognize the rights of its Arab minority as equal to the Jewish majority. Israeli media outlets, and the Knesset itself, noted that the move was ‘highly unusual,’ in that it marked the first time proposed legislation had been disqualified before being discussed in the plenum during the past two Knesset terms.”

“Despite the loss, the Balad MKs have stepped up their campaign for the bill and are increasing efforts to raise awareness on what they say is a dangerous decision with severe implications for Israeli society and the future of the state. MK Zahalka spoke to Mondoweiss about the party’s motivation behind proposing the bill, its significance in the current Israeli political climate, and the consequences of the outright rejection of the bill and what it represents.”

Mondoweiss: Tell us about this proposal. What are the basic tenets of the bill?

Zahalka: Our party, Balad, since its establishment in 1996, presented the idea of a ‘state of all its citizens’ as the major position of our identity. If you ask someone ‘What is balad?’ they will say ‘It is the state of all its citizens.’ ‘We entered into the Knesset on this platform decades ago. It’s not something new that we are bringing to the table. This law speaks about the basic premise that the state is for all its citizens, and is not a state for only part of its citizens. “

“The law stresses that the state should be for all its citizens, taking into account that it has two nationalities in the country, not just one. The bill proposed that there be two official languages, Arabic and Hebrew. It speaks about the recognition of the cultural and religious rights of every group in the country. It speaks about separation between religion and state, which does not exist in Israel, and that people’s civic rights should be upheld according to international law and universal values.” (more…)

 

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