Nov. 26 (UPI) — A majority of Israelis support enshrining equality for non-Jewish citizens, who are considered by some to be treated as separate and unequal in Israel under laws passed by the Knesset in recent years.
The most controversial of the recent laws, known as the 2018 Nation-State Law, declared that Jewish people around the world — and not just the Jewish citizens of Israel — are the sovereign in the state of Israel and the only people with a right to self-determination within the nation.
The law has been criticized for effectively making discrimination constitutional, preventing Arab citizens from leasing or purchasing some land, and allowing Israelis to settle Palestinian land — which is considered illegal under international law.
“We are enshrining this important bill into a law today to prevent even the slightest thought, let alone attempt, to transform Israel to a country of all its citizens,” Avi Dichter, a Knesset member and key sponsor of the bill since its introduction in 2011, said after it passed in 2018.
In March, the Council on Foreign Relations — a U.S.-based think tank — wrote that Arab citizens of Israel, as opposed to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, have “the same legal rights” as Jewish people in Israel but face challenges “that some experts attribute to structural discrimination.”
Arab citizens of Israel make up 21% of the country’s population but have just ten seats in the 120-seat Knesset, or about 8% of all lawmakers — limiting their power of legislation in the government.
The CFR further pointed to another law from 1950 that grants all Jews worldwide automatic citizenship if they choose, while non-Jews do not have this right – including the descendants of Palestinian expatriates. Arabs in Israel also have less access to municipal services in some cities and the majority are considered poor and systemically unable to build wealth.
Now, the new poll from the Israel Democracy Institute has found that 56% of Israelis support adding a clause to the 2018 law to enshrine protections for Arab and non-Jewish citizens.
“A breakdown of responses in the Jewish sample by religiosity reveals that only a small minority of Haredim support amending the Nation-State Law (13%), as do minorities of national religious (30.5%) and traditional religious (41%) respondents,” the poll found. “Those in favor constitute more than half of traditional non-religious respondents (54%) and a sizable majority of secular respondents (68%).”
