Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his support for the controversial nation-state bill on Thursday, stressing that it strikes a proper balance between Israel's Jewish character and its democratic principles.
The nation-state bill aims to legally redefine Israel's official status as a "Jewish state with a democratic regime," rather than a "Jewish and democratic state," as it is defined today in Israel's basic laws.
If passed, the law will require the state to preserve the country's Jewish character and protect state symbols and sacred Jewish sites according to Jewish tradition.
One sticking point included in the bill is a provision allowing communities to legally exclude non-Jews. The attorney general has criticized the provision as discriminatory and a violation of Israel's basic laws.
But speaking at an event in memory of Revisionist Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Netanyahu said that "Israel's democracy will continue to safeguard the rights of the individual and the rights of the collective; but the majority also has rights, and the majority decides."
Netanyahu said that the "the overwhelming majority of people want to ensure that Israel's Jewish character is preserved for generations."
Earlier in the day, Netanyahu commented on the recent compromise proposed by Habayit Hayehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett regarding the language of the bill, and specifically to the provisions that allow the state to promote segregated communities.
Bennett has suggested a watered-down provision stating 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.
Netanyahu said he believes that "we will find a way to settle the matter and pass the bill."
Meanwhile, Netanyahu instructed the Foreign Ministry to summon European Union Ambassador to Israel Emanuele Giaufret for censure, after it emerged that he had engaged in efforts to derail the nation-state bill.
Giaufret reportedly told Israeli lawmakers that the bill "has a racist stench to it."
"It's bad enough that the European Union funds groups that undercut the State of Israel and promote illegal construction," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement Thursday. "Now, [the EU] is intervening in Israeli legislation. Apparently they don't understand that Israel is a sovereign state."
