Israel's Nation State Law: Arab IDF Commander-in-Chief? Arab Prime Minister? - by Sheri Oz

...Ironically, however, the very fact that Balad actually proposed a bill directly challenging the existence of Israel as a Jewish state may have been the impetus that led to the passage of the law in record time.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
02 August '20..

In his article in Yisrael Hayom, law professor Dr Shaul Sharf asks an interesting question against the background of the Knesset vote last Wednesday (July 29) rejecting a bill to amend the two-year-old Law. Sharf asks: does the existence on the books of Israel’s Nation State Law make having an Arab IDF Commander-in-Chief a good thing or a bad thing? I would like to expand that question and ask if it makes it possible to envision the situation in which we have an Arab Prime Minister. Neither of these are against any law in Israel, and both are currently equally unfathomable.

This is a long article and I hope you will bear with me to the end.

There seem to be two major groups in Israel opposed to the Nation State Law. One group has nefarious motives and the other group is made up of naive Jews and emotion-driven non-Jews who apparently do not understand the nature of legislation even though some of them are Members of Knesset and others journalists.

It is clear that the the motive behind attempts to modify the Nation State Law on the part of the first group is, ideally, to get it deleted from the law books entirely — much as they would like to wipe the entire Jewish state off the map. This group includes the Joint Arab List and their partners outside the Knesset, such as the NGO Adalah. Since the Nation State Law is a Basic Law, however, rescinding it may prove to be next to impossible. Therefore, the best they can do right now is try to have it watered down or at least to keep the Law in the headlines as part of anti-Israeli propaganda campaigns within Israel and around the world.

The second group is made up of naive do-gooders, such as Yair Lapid, and supposed innocent victims of the Law. They think they are acting from a humanitarian civil rights position. They believe the rhetoric that the Nation State Law turns the non-Jewish citizens of Israel into second-class citizens. Why? Because that is how some, such as respected Druze journalist Riad Ali, say the Law makes them feel. And hurt feelings make an impression on Jews who cannot bear the thought that something we do for ourselves might be experienced negatively by someone else. It was heartbreaking to see Ali cry on a national television news broadcast when talking about the impact of the Nation State Law on him, personally, yet I wonder if he even read the law before deciding to feel insulted.

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