A week after the Druze community and supporters of the Druze gathered in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv to protest the nation-state law, the same plaza outside city hall turned red, green, black and white on Saturday night as thousands of Israeli Arabs turned out to demonstrate against the law, waving Palestinian flags and chanting, "In spirit and blood we will redeem Palestine."
The title of Saturday night's protest was "The nation-state law will be overturned – yes to equality."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted footage of the protest and wrote: "There is no greater testimony that the nation-state law was necessary. We will continue to fly the Israeli flag proudly and sing [the national anthem] 'Hatikva' with great pride."
Speaking ahead of the weekly meeting of the coalition faction heads Sunday, Netanyahu said, "Last night we were given clear proof of the defiance against the very existence of the State of Israel, which is why the nation-state law is necessary.
"We've seen how the Palestinian flag was flying in the heart of Tel Aviv. We heard the calls to "redeem Palestine in spirit and blood. Many protesters want to repeal the Law of Return, do away with our flag and our anthem – they want to do away with Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people and turn it onto an Israeli-Palestinian state."
This, Netanyahu stressed, "is exactly why we enacted the nation-state law. The individual rights of Israeli citizens are well-anchored in other Basic Law and regular laws. Now it is clearer than ever that we needed the nation-state law to ensure Israel's future as the nation-state of the Jewish people. We enacted this law and we will preserve it," he said.
Flying of Palestinian flags in Tel Aviv 'a disgrace'
Protester Laila al-Sana, 19, from a Bedouin village in the Negev, said, "The law legitimizes racism," said. "It's very important to show we are here, to resist," she said.
"When I heard about the law I felt I should defend my hometown, our land, the land of my ancestors," 68-year-old Sheikha Dabbah said at the rally.
Gila Zamir, 58, a Jewish resident of Haifa, said, "I feel ashamed that after 70 years I have to underscore my nationalism instead of being generous toward all those who live here."
Aataf Basha, a resident of the Bedouin town of Rahat, told Israel Hayom he thought the law was "discriminatory and fascist, divisive and discriminatory. It won't help the Netanyahu government. We need to go hand in hand: Druze, Jews, and Arabs – it doesn't matter what your ethnicity, we need to oppose Netanyahu.
"This is a delusional law. After 70 years of living together, suddenly there's a problem of nationality?" Basha said.
Omar Sultan, from the Arab city of Tira in central Israel, said he was protesting to send a message to Netanyahu.
"This law is against us, against the Arabic language, against peace, against our future in this land, we are the real people of this land, we can't agree on this law," he said.
The sight of Israeli citizens unfurling Palestinian flags and marching to "redeem Palestine" drew harsh comments from politicians.
A number of politicians were on the ground with the marchers, including Knesset members from the Joint Arab List, Meretz, and Zionist Union MK Mickey Rosenthal, who attended despite party leader Avi Gabbay's explicit instructions to Labor MKs not to take part in the prowwww.
Rosenthal tweeted that "what worries me most are the Zionist Union members who are afraid to stand up proudly against this campaign of incitement, lest they be publicly or politically eaten alive [for it]. I'm taking part in the protests not in support of its organizers, but because I believe that there is no Zionism without democracy and no democracy without equality."
Zionist Union MK Robert Tiviaev called the Palestinian flags on display at the protest "a disgrace."
Joint Arab List MK Jamal Zahalka said, "We oppose this law and demand that it be overturned entirely. The addition of the word 'equality' won't save it and it [the law] will carry the seeds of racism in any form."
According to Zahalka, "Anyone who is satisfied with the amendment [adding the word 'equality'] wants to add an element of hypocrisy to it, nothing more."
Joint Arab List leader Ayman Odeh said, "This is the first time that tens of thousands of Arabs have come to Tel Aviv with Jewish democratic groups. They came to say this is not the end of the demonstrations, but the first serious demonstration against the nation-state law."
Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev said that former Prime Minister Yithak Rabin "is surely turning in his grave over the fact that the Left supports Arabs who flew Palestinian flags in Rabin Square. I find that outrageous. I plan on asking Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit [to weigh in on the matter] because we cannot agree to Palestinian flags flying in central Tel Aviv."
Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis said, "If anyone still had any doubt about why the nation-state law was necessary, the images from the protest are clear proof that Israel needs the law.
"In the fact of the subversives who question that Israel is the national state of the Jewish people, with a blue and white flag and 'Hatikva' [as the national anthem], Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People is one of the most important laws enacted in Israel in the past few years," Akunis said.
Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Zeev Elkin, one of the authors of the law, echoed Akunis, saying, "As I said this week in the Knesset: When [MK] Ahmad Tibi and [MK] Hanin Zoabi oppose the nation-state law together with these protesters with their Palestinian flags and calls of 'in spirit and in blood…,' I understand why they're doing it. They truly oppose Zionism and the fact that Israel is the state of the Jewish people and was established as such by the U.N. But [Yesh Atid leader] Yair Lapid and [Zionist Union MK] Tzipi Livni? Why do they oppose it?"
Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz added, "Ahmad Tibi and Ayman Odeh and their friends are protesting the Jewish nation and in favor of an Arab-Palestinian nation. It's not the wording of the law that bothers them, it's the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."
