Likud MK: Protect Druze Status Within Jewish State Bill

November 28, 2014

2 min read

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent efforts to enshrine Israel’s status as a Jewish state in its legal system has drawn much negative attention at home and abroad, but Likud MK Danny Danon wants to amend the bill to protect minorities who support their country.

Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People has been in the works for months, with multiple drafts in circulation. All seek to codify Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which acknowledges the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in the Land of Israel, to the exclusion of others, while protecting the individual rights of non-Jews within its borders. Much of the controversy stems from the perceived imbalance in the drafts between the principles of a Jewish and democratic state.

Relatives of Zidan Seif, the Druze police officer slain in the recent terror attack on a Jerusalem synagogue, publicly expressed their concern over the law. Murat Seif, Zidan’s brother, said Thursday he would not encourage other Druze youth to enlist should the law pass. The bill would differentiate between “Druze and Jewish blood,” he complained to Israel Radio.

Danon wants to head off this tension at the pass. “We must handle this [injustice] immediately. And by immediately, I mean yesterday morning. To apply affirmative action at every level when it comes to the Druze community,” he said, according to a report by Israel’s Channel 2.

The Times of Israel reports that Danon is set to meet with Druze community leaders Friday in the northern town of Daliyat al-Karmel, near Haifa. The goal of the meeting is to discuss his proposal to amend the Jewish State bill to protect the status of minorities in Israel who serve in the army. This amendment would primarily affect the Druze community, who are subject to the same mandatory army service as Jewish Israelis.

 

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