Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday suggested a compromise that may facilitate the vote on the highly contested nation-state bill, which currently faces legal criticism over an article Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit has deemed discriminatory.
The nation-state bill aims to anchor Israel's status as a "Jewish state with a democratic regime," rather than a "Jewish and democratic state." If passed, it will require the state to preserve the country's Jewish character and protect state symbols and sacred Jewish sites according to Jewish tradition. If enacted, it will become one of Israel's basic laws, which have been recognized by the courts as a de facto constitution.
The already controversial legislative proposal sparked a political firestorm earlier this week after Mendelblit ruled that Article 7b in the bill, which allows Jewish communities to legally exclude non-Jews, is discriminatory and should be removed.
On Monday, in a highly unusual move, President Reuven Rivlin publicly came out against the controversial clause, warning that including such a provision in the bill "effectively allows any group to build a community without Mizrahi Jews, haredi Jews, Druze or LGBTQ people. I am concerned that the sweeping, unbalanced wording of this clause may harm the Jewish people, Jews throughout the world, and the State of Israel and could even be used as a weapon against us by our enemies."
As a compromise, Bennett, who heads the Habayit Hayehudi party, has suggested an alternate provision, stipulating that Jewish communities would be "allowed to maintain their character" and that the state would have the power to earmark certain areas for the construction of Jewish-only communities, especially in national priority areas such as the Negev and the Galilee.
Bennett's compromise would see Article 7 in the nation-state bill include two clauses: The first will stipulate that "the state will act to Judaize the Negev and the Galilee and other communities as determined by national considerations. The state will also cultivate Jewish settlement there by way of, among other things, incentives to encourage Jewish settlement in these communities."
The second clause will stipulate that "state institutions will, independently or in collaboration with state agencies, work to promote Jewish settlement nationwide."
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Habayit Hayehudi MK Nissan Slomiansky, who is the co-chair of the ministerial committee debating the language of the nation-state bill, were reportedly party to drafting Bennett's proposal.
Sources familiar with the issue told Israel Hayom that Bennett has discussed the proposed revisions with the heads of the coalition factions and none of them expressed objections to the change, effectively giving it the green light.
