Lawmakers from the opposition parties Zionist Union, Yesh Atid, Meretz and Joint Arab List blasted the nation-state law and called for it to be struck down at an emergency Knesset session Wednesday.
The controversial Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People was passed by a vote of 62-55 just before the Knesset dispersed for its summer recess in mid-July. The law, which aims to anchor Israel's status as a Jewish state, has angered many of Israel's non-Jewish citizens, who view it as discriminatory against them.
Some 50 lawmakers attended the emergency session, which was initiated by the Zionist Union. The Zionist Union obtained 52 signatures from opposition factions, more than twice as many as required to initiate a Knesset session during a recess. However, no voting is permitted at such sessions.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein was forced to stop the session for several minutes to allow Zionist Union protesters waving banners and copies of Israel's Declaration of Independence to be removed from the Visitors' Gallery. Edelstein called the actions of the protesters "shameful."
Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Zeev Elkin responded to the controversy over the legislation by saying that the original draft of the law was presented in 2011 by the now-defunct Kadima party, at the time led by Tzipi Livni, who recently was named opposition leader.
At the time, 20 lawmakers signed on to the legislation, including Zionist Union MK Yoel Hasson and the late Labor MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. (Labor and Hatnuah, headed by Livni, joined to form the Zionist Union.)
Elkin said the original version of the bill went much further than the version approved by the Knesset recently, and attacked Livni for not advancing any legislation to promote equality during her two terms as justice minister.
Elkin said that while he was not surprised by the Joint Arab List's opposition to the law, he could "not understand how a Zionist party like the Labor party can oppose a law that establishes Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people."
He said the vast majority of the Israeli public holds Zionist views and "is not ashamed that we are the nation-state of the Jewish people. You [the Zionist Union] are liable to lose half of your voter base in the next election as a result of your opposition to this [law]."
At the session, in her first speech as opposition leader, Livni said, "I want to do what the prime minister did not do, and apologize to the Druze community not just for the problematic law, but for not bothering to show up to the discussion and provide answers, not just to you but to all of the citizens of the state.
"Netanyahu ran away because he doesn't have an answer to the real question: Who is for and who is against the Declaration of Independence? And what the hell does the prime minister of Israel have against the Declaration of Independence? What about this wonderful document bothers him?"
Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid, who was also at the session, said that by passing the nation-state law, Israel had missed an "incredible opportunity."
"We could have gone with [MK] Benny Begin of Likud's proposal, which included the equality clause that appears in the Likud charter. Ninety lawmakers could have supported it, but Netanyahu doesn't want unity, he wants us to fight and be at odds," Lapid said.
Meretz MK Issawi Frej said, "The nation-state law is, to my mind, the law disengaging the state from its Arab citizens."
Joint Arab List MK Ahmad Tibi lamented that "there is only one mention of Arabs in this law, and it is in the negative context of canceling the status of the Arabic language."
