{"id":10772,"date":"2018-07-19T10:41:19","date_gmt":"2018-07-19T10:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=10772"},"modified":"2018-07-19T10:41:19","modified_gmt":"2018-07-19T10:41:19","slug":"10772","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=10772","title":{"rendered":"Controversial \u2018nation-state\u2019 bill passes Israeli parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"<header id=\"main-header\">\n<div class=\"top-menu sticky-scroll-up contain-to-grid show-for-small-only\">\n<nav class=\"top-bar\" data-topbar=\"\" data-sticky_height=\"0\" data-distance=\"245\" data-options=\"sticky_on: small; back_text: Back\">By <strong>NAN<\/strong><i class=\"fa fa-user\"><\/i>Legislation that defines Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people and downgrades the status of Arabic from an official language to having a \u201cspecial status\u201d\u00a0passed the Israeli parliament early Thursday, ending a years-long push by right-wing lawmakers against the outcry of civil liberty groups.<\/p>\n<section class=\"top-bar-section\">\n<div align=\"right\"><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div id=\"inner_wrapper\" class=\"inner_wrapper hide-on-mobile-menu \">\n<div class=\"row full-width\">\n<div class=\"inner_content\">\n<div class=\"row has-sidebar\">\n<div class=\"post-100921 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-news tag-nation-state-bill-in-israel\">\n<div class=\"row vc_row in-container\">\n<div class=\"medium-8 column left\">\n<article id=\"post-100921\" data-postid=\"100921\" data-guid=\"http:\/\/www.nan.ng\/?p=100921\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/www.nan.ng\/news\/controversial-nation-state-bill-passes-israeli-parliament\/\">\n<div class=\"row collapse article-content-wrap\">\n<div class=\"small-12 medium-9 right column\">\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"post-body xt-post-content\">\nThe bill, passed in an 62-55 vote, was applauded by coalition lawmakers as enshrining in legislation what is commonly accepted by most Israelis and much of the world, that Israel is a Jewish state.<br \/>\nThe legislation is known as a basic law, similar to a constitutional amendment, which will form the foundation of Israel\u2019s judicial system.<br \/>\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the vote a \u201cdefining moment in the history of Zionism.\u201d<br \/>\nHowever, Arab-Israelis, civil liberty groups and opposition politicians groups have decried the legislation as subjugating Israel\u2019s democratic character to its Jewish character at the expense of minorities.<br \/>\n\u201cThe bill opens the way for practices leading to racial discrimination in all spheres of life towards other minorities,\u201d\u00a0the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said.<br \/>\nThe most controversial clause of the law \u2013 a passage that appeared to permit religious or ethnicity-based housing discrimination \u2013 was removed to gain widespread support.<br \/>\nIsrael lacks a constitution and has long performed a delicate balancing act between its Jewish character and a commitment in the Declaration of Independence to providing \u201cfull and equal citizenship\u201d\u00a0to all citizens.<br \/>\nAround 20 per cent of Israeli citizens are Arab.<br \/>\nAhmad Tibi, a leading Arab-Israeli lawmaker, called the bill \u201cthe demise of the principle of democracy in Israel.\u201d (dpa\/NAN)\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By NANLegislation that defines Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people and downgrades the status of Arabic from an official language to having a \u201cspecial status\u201d\u00a0passed the Israeli parliament early Thursday, ending a years-long push by right-wing lawmakers against the outcry of civil liberty groups. The bill, passed in an 62-55 vote, was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}