A ministerial committee was established Sunday to handle the crisis with the Druze community and other minority communities caused by the enactment of the controversial nation-state bill, and was scheduled to hold its first meeting on Monday.
In its weekly meeting on Sunday, the cabinet decided to establish the Ministerial Committee on the Issue of the Druze and Circassian Communities and Minorities that Serve in the Security Forces. The committee is being headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and includes Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and other ministry heads.
The committee's main mission is to provide solutions for difficulties in housing, employment and education encountered by members of minority groups who serve in the nation's security forces.
In Sunday's cabinet meeting, Netanyahu dismissed arguments that the Druze community was hurt by the nation-state bill, the mostly symbolic new Basic Law that decrees that only the Jewish people have the right to national self-determination in Israel.
"The State of Israel is the national state of the Jewish people. Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. Individual rights are anchored in many laws, including [the] Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. No one has harmed – and nobody intends to harm – these individual rights," Netanyahu said.
"The deep bond between the Druze community and our commitment to it are also essential. Therefore, today we will establish a special ministerial committee to advance this bond."
Meanwhile, in an interview with Army Radio on Sunday, Shaked addressed the possibility that the High Court of Justice might reject the nation-state law, against which at least two petitions have already been filed.
"A step like that would be an earthquake, a war between the branches of government," Shaked said.
