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'Our kids will leave.' Rally in Tel Aviv
Photo: Oren Rice

Rally against loyalty oath: Israel becoming fascist

Professors, artists blast cabinet's approval of bill obligating prospective non-Jewish citizens to pledge allegiance to 'Jewish and democratic' state. Kaniuk: If we don’t take matters into our own hands, we will be destroyed

Artists and intellectuals rallied in Tel Aviv on Sunday, shortly after the government passed the loyalty oath bill, under which non-Jewish prospective citizens will be obligated to pledge allegiance to Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state".

 

The protestors read from the Declaration of Independence and warned that Israel was becoming a fascist state.

 

"Israel is deteriorating from the vision of a democratic state to a fascist state. Our children will either leave this terrible place, be put in jail or fight in the streets like in Iran," Professor Yaron Ezrachi told the rally, which was held outside the Eretz Israel Museum.

 

"It is very easy to incite a nation such as ours, which fears for its security and is uncertain if its identity," he continued. "(Shas chairman and Interior Minister) Eli Yishai should swear he is willing to accept the Supreme Court's authority before asking us to pledge allegiance to a Jewish state."

 

Author Yoram Kaniuk also leveled harsh criticism at Yishai, saying he "completely ignored 350,000 people who signed a petition against moving to Winter Time. If we don’t take matters into our own hands, we will be destroyed."

 

Standing next to a statue of Meir Dizengoff, the first mayor of Tel Aviv, Kaniuk said, "We must rebel against these laws."

 

Professor Gabi Solomon said, "Here we are burying the Declaration of Independence," and added cynically, "There is a reason for persecuting the Arabs; they are a fifth column and will stab us in the back. The fact that they haven't done so in 62 years is irrelevant."

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 10.10.10, 17:55
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