Screaming at the Knesset Committee on the Nationality Bill

An altercation erupted on Sunday at the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee during a vote on the controversial nationality project.

Committee Chair MK Amir Ohana (Likud) decided to vote on all the articles, with the exception of two controversial articles, 5 and 7, which will be voted on at a later date.

At the vote, there was an outcry over a reservation submitted by Bayit Yehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich on Article 1b, which says: "The State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, in which he realizes his natural, cultural and historical right to self-determination. "

Smotrich wanted add the word "religious" after the word "cultural".

"How can you have a democratic process on an undemocratic bill?" Yesh Atid MK Pnina Tamano-Shata is asked.

Then some members of the Knesset asked to check the cameras for s & ## 39, ensure the results of a vote on any of the reservations. The votes are made with each MK raising their hand to indicate that they are in favor or against the point being voted.

The commission's legal counsel asked to vote again, but opposition members objected.

MK Michal Rozin: "There was no revision, you are flying (voting on) this article."

MK Tzipi Livni: "You steal the country."

MK Yael German: "You can not say that it happened when it did not work."

MK Rozin: "I ask you to bring the Knesset's legal adviser here and show him the video."

Counsel for the Committee: "I want it to be clear: Including MP Sharren Haskel who was not in the room."

MK Rozin in Haskel: "Were you or were not you here for the vote? "

MK Ahmad Tibi: " Do not lie, do not lie, anyway, the reservation has not been accepted it was a vote of five to six votes, or six to six. "Sharren Haskel was not there."

MK Pnina Tamano-Shata : "He did not not enough that there is the tyranny of the majority, there are also lies and deceptions, really unimaginable.Go to the Knesset Channel and watch the video. "

The proposed law on nationality, sponsored by among others by the deputy Avi Dichter (Likud), aims to enshrine in law the status of the state of Israel as a nation state of the Jewish people.

This legally includes the democratic character of Israel, its state symbols, Jerusalem as the capital, Hebrew as the official language and the right of return for the Jewish community of the diaspora.

The Arabic language will receive a special status as the second official language of Israel, but the law will not require that state services are also accessible in Arabic.

An article allowing the establishment of exclusively Jewish communities remained, despite the objection of the Attorney General and the other parties.

The critics of the law claim that the article dealing with the preservation of its heritage, in its current formulation, could allow the ultra-Orthodox, in certain circumstances, to benefit from an exemption from the studies of the common core (mathematics, science and English) In their schools. This claim has been rejected by some authors of the law.

Some 2,500 people participated in a protest in Tel Aviv against the draft law on nationality Saturday night, claiming that it is a racist and discriminatory bill.

The Knesset will meet Monday for its last week of activity before the summer hiatus, but due to disagreements within the coalition, it is unclear whether the draft law on nationality will be voted in his second and third readings.

Minister Yariv Levin announced Sunday morning that an agreement is being made regarding the problematic article 7b, which allows the exclusion of citizens of towns and villages according to their nationality or their religion. According to Levin, the new wording, which is acceptable to the Attorney General, will establish and reinforce Jewish settlement in a way that clearly shows that the encouragement of Jewish settlement is a legitimate achievement of the Zionist vision and does not constitutes neither discrimination nor inequality.

A few hours later, Bayit Yehudi announced that they were opposed to the article, with party officials claiming that it did not fulfill the purpose for which the draft law was made. Bayit Yehudi's objections to the new version also cast doubt on the vote.