Kahlon will support 'changed' Nationality Bill
Finance Minister and Kulanu Chairman Kahlon informed Prime Minister Netanyahu that his party would support the Nationality Bill in its first reading, but made it clear that there was no commitment by the party to continue supporting it thereafter should it remain unchanged.
However, speaking at a meeting of the heads of the coalition parties, Kahlon told Netanyahu that an agreement had still not been reached on the matter, clarifying that he had not committed to lending the bill his party’s backing.
At the meeting, Kahlon said that he had not committed to supporting the first draft of the bill, adding that it would need to be revised if his party would throw its weight behind it.
At the conclusion of the meeting when Kahlon left the discussions, he announced that “Kulanu will support the bill.”
Netanyahu has said that the Nationality Bill is the first task that he has delegated to the newly installed coalition chair MK David Amsalem, who replaced Wednesday David Bitan.
Following his nomination to his new post, Netanyahu said that “the first task of the coalition chairman, MK Amsalem, will be to pass the Nationality bill, one of the the most important laws that will enter the pages of the history of the State of Israel.”
The bill passed a preliminary reading at the Knesset last May.
During a tumultuous discussion at the Israeli legislature, two Joint List MKs—Hanin Zoabi and Jamal Zahalka, both from the Balad faction—were removed from the plenum after repeatedly interrupting MK Avi Dichter while he spoke at the podium.
"This is apartheid, apartheid, apartheid," Zahalka yelled and also called Dichter, who proposed the bill, a "fascist."
MK Dichter, meanwhile, asserted from the podium that "there's disinformation. The bill doesn't hurt anyone. After 69 years, the state deserves to free itself of mandate-era definitions. Over the years, MKs from almost all parties have supported this bill, except the Joint List."
According to Dichter, the legislation's objective is "to safeguard Israel's status as the nation-state of the Jewish people, in a way that enshrines in Basic Law Israel's values as a Jewish and democratic state."
The legislation, which is considered by its opponents as discriminatory towards Arab Israelis, specifies some of the practical aspects of the State of Israel being the nation-state of the Jewish people. The bill addresses state symbols (national anthem, flag, icons), Jerusalem as the capital, Hebrew as the official language, the right of return for Jews, the ingathering of the exiles, Jewish settlement, relations with the Jewish Diaspora, the Hebrew calendar, and holy sites.
