PM determined to pass law; Lapid and Livni will not vote to define Israel as Jewish nation state

i24 and combined services–Israel’s political arena was seething Monday ahead of the possible firing of two central members of the cabinet by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Efforts were being to calm tensions and stave off such a scenario. At the same time, Israeli coalition leaders decided on Monday to delay the vote on the controversial “Jewish state” bill by one week, as ministers vowed to continue to oppose the measure even if it meant their jobs. The bill would enshrine in law Israel’s identity as a Jewish state, but reserve the right of national determination within the country to Jews alone. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni reiterated her intention to fight the controversial proposal and challenged Prime Minister Netanyahu to decide whether it is worth it to break up his coalition over the law.

According to the Times of Israel, “The cabinet decision stipulated 14 “principles” that would guide the drafting of the new law. The final bill, which will be formally proposed in the Knesset by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, seeks to “define the identity of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and to anchor the values of the state of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state in the spirit of the principles of the Declaration of the Independence,” according to the cabinet decision.

The vote followed a stormy debate between ministers that more than once turned into a shouting match between Netanyahu and other ministers.

Voting against the proposal were the five cabinet ministers from the centrist Yesh Atid party– Finance Minister Yair Lapid, Education Minister Shai Piron, Science Minister Yaakov Peri, Health Minister Yael German, and Welfare Minister Meir Cohen–as well as Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua).

The votes in favor included all Likud, Yisrael Beytenu and Jewish Home ministers, except for Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat (Likud), who was not present.

The new Basic Law would enshrine many of the defining characteristics of the Jewish state in a constitutional framework, asserting that “the right to express national self-determination within the State of Israel is [reserved] only to the Jewish people.”

Israel “has equal individual rights for every citizen and we insist on this. But only the Jewish people have national rights: a flag, anthem, the right of every Jew to immigrate to the country, and other national symbols. These are granted only to our people, in its one and only state,” Netanyahu said when the meeting began.

“We wouldn’t have gotten here if Livni acted differently,” he said, according to Ynet.

Livni had agreed to draft an agreed-upon version of the bill in June, but a committee that was meant to meet to draft the bill has yet to meet, critics charge.

“If all of this was to get back at me– you won,” Livni shot back at Netanyahu. “Your speech this morning and the beautiful words about the Declaration of Independence, about Jabotinsky and equality, do not cover up the holes in [coalition chairman MK Ze’ev] Elkin’s bill, and that even his bill and your speech together don’t amount to anything substantial.”

In interviews they gave Sunday night, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid made clear they would not vote for a bill approved earlier in the day enshrining Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. If they indeed fail to support the proposed legislation when it comes up for a preliminary Knesset vote on Wednesday, Netanyahu is likely to fire them.

“I am determined to pass the law,” Netanyahu said today at a session of his party, Likud, “whether (the ministers) agree or not. The law is crucial to assure to future of the Jewish people in the Jewish land and the state of Israel,” he said.

When asked whether Israel is headed towards new parliamentary elections, Netanyahu replied only that “time will tell.”

At a stormy four-hour cabinet session on Sunday, Livni and Lapid, who head two centrist coalition parties, voted against the measure proposed by right-wing Knesset members. Netanyahu intends to propose a softer, compromise version later this week, after the initial Knesset vote.

The three proposed versions of Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People – which were eventually approved by the cabinet with 15 in favor and six opposed – declare Israel to be the site of self-determination exclusively for the Jewish people. All three versions of the bill reinforce “Hatikva” as the national anthem, the use of the Hebrew calendar and the Law of Return which provides automatic citizenship for all Jews, and call for freedom of access and protection of holy places.

But two of the three do not describe Israel’s character as democratic, in addition to Jewish, merely mentioning that the state’s “form of government” is democratic.

“I will not lend a hand to this bill. I will not vote for it,” Livni told Channel 2 News on Sunday. “I am thinking of voting against. I certainly won’t let the proposal pass as long as it depends on me,” she added. “I won’t allow the bill to pass while I am in the bathroom.”

The chairwoman of the left-wing Meretz party, MK Zahava Gal-On, accused Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition partners of committing a “crime against Israeli democracy.”

Gal-On said that even the tamer version of the bill being proposed by Netanyahu undermines the principle of equality and turns Israel’s Arab population into second-class citizens.

The Israel Democracy Institute, a think tank, issued an opinion saying “the version of the nation-state bill approved today is bad for everyone who holds the State of Israel dear. The MKs must come to their senses and scrap this bill even before it comes to the Knesset on Wednesday. “This is a bill that tramples on the [state’s] democratic component, doesn’t allow true equal rights for the minorities who live among us and its real purpose is to dictate to the courts how to rule,” read a statement issued by the IDI.

“The State of Israel is already the nation-state of the Jewish people, and the guiding principles for achieving this declaration are written in the declaration of independence.”

But analysts cast doubt on the prospects of Netanyahu firing his two ministers, as well as on the approval of the proposed legislation by the Knesset.

Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein has indicated his opposition to the legislation in its current form. “It’s very problematic to me that the government supports [private members’] proposals which raise serious problems,” Weinstein wrote in a legal opinion published by the Walla news site last Thursday. He said that in the proposed bills that have been drafted thus far, including Netanyahu’s, there are “significant changes in the founding principles of constitutional law as anchored in the Declaration of Independence and in the basic laws of the Knesset, which can flatten the democratic character of the state.”