The move comes just two weeks before US President Tump is expected to visit the region to discuss renewing peace talks. Critics say the measure would relegate Israeli Arabs to second class citizens.
Image: picture-alliance/newscom/D. Hill
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Right-wingers in Israel's cabinet have renewed their push to anchor the country's status as a Jewish state into law. Opponents say it would relegate the Arab minority to second-class citizens and further diminish any hopes for a peace settlement with the Palestinians.
The revision of a bill, first proposed in 2011, declares the "State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people," its author, Avi Dichter of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, wrote on Facebook.
The legislation still has to pass through the Justice Ministry and wind its way through parliament. But the cabinet level move, coming just two weeks before a visit by US President Donald Trump, carries political significance.
The bill could help Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firm up relations with far-right members of his cabinet and underpin his bid to press Palestinians to recognize Israel as the "nation-state" of the Jewish people.
Netanyahu has long demanded such recognition as a precondition for reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks which had been moribund for years and collapsed outright in 2014.
Trump has pledged to jumpstart peace talks. But Palestinians say accepting Netanyahu's demand could deny Palestinian refugees of past wars any right of return.
Second-class citizens
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has characterized such "nation-state" legislation as putting "obstacles in the way of peace." Others, such as Arab legislator Ayman Odeh, have been more blunt in their criticism.
Odeh slammed the proposed bill, writing on Twitter: "The nation-state law is tyranny by the majority and 'legally' turns us into second-class citizens."
Critics also note that the proposed legislation, which also declares that the "right to self determination" in Israel is "unique to the Jewish people" impinges on the rights of its Arab minority, who make up some 20 percent of the population.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has visited IsraelImage: picture alliance/dpa/Newscom/R. Zvulun
The bill designates Hebrew as the country's only official language, although it requires government services and forms to be available in Arabic as well.
But Dichter defended the new bill calling it, "an important step in entrenching our identity, not only in the consciousness of the world but primarily in our own minds."
The revised bill appears to soften previous language that would have given Jewish values prominence in law-making and judicial decisions.
A history of the Middle East peace process
For over half a century, disputes between Israelis and Palestinians over land, refugees and holy sites remain unresolved. DW gives you a short history of when the conflict flared and when attempts were made to end it.
UN Security Council Resolution 242, 1967
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, passed on November 22, 1967, called for the exchange of land for peace. Since then, many of the attempts to establish peace in the region have referred to 242. The resolution was written in accordance with Chapter VI of the UN Charter, under which resolutions are recommendations, not orders.
Image: Getty Images/Keystone
Camp David Accords, 1978
A coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt and Syria, fought Israel in the Yom Kippur or October War in October 1973. The conflict eventually led to the secret peace talks that yielded two agreements after 12 days. This picture from March 26, 1979, shows Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, his US counterpart Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin after signing the accords in Washington.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/B. Daugherty
The Madrid Conference, 1991
The US and the former Soviet Union came together to organize a conference in the Spanish capital. The discussions involved Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinians — not from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) — who met with Israeli negotiators for the first time. While the conference achieved little, it did create the framework for later, more productive talks.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Hollander
Oslo I Accord, 1993
The negotiations in Norway between Israel and the PLO, the first direct meeting between the two parties, resulted in the Oslo I Accord. The agreement was signed in the US in September 1993. It demanded that Israeli troops withdraw from West Bank and Gaza Strip and a self-governing, interim Palestinian authority be set up for a five-year transitional period. A second accord was signed in 1995.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Sachs
Camp David Summit Meeting, 2000
US President Bill Clinton invited Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat to the retreat in July 2000 to discuss borders, security, settlements, refugees and Jerusalem. Despite the negotiations being more detailed than ever before, no agreement was concluded. The failure to reach a consensus at Camp David was followed by renewed Palestinian uprising, the Second Intifada.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Edmonds
The Arab Peace Initiative, 2002
The Camp David negotiations were followed first by meetings in Washington and then in Cairo and Taba, Egypt — all without results. Later the Arab League proposed the Arab Peace Initiative in Beirut in March 2002. The plan called on Israel to withdraw to pre-1967 borders so that a Palestinian state could be set up in the West Bank and Gaza. In return, Arab countries would agree to recognize Israel.
Image: Getty Images/C. Kealy
The Roadmap, 2003
The US, EU, Russia and the UN worked together as the Middle East Quartet to develop a road map to peace. While Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas accepted the text, his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon had more reservations with the wording. The timetable called for a final agreement on a two-state solution to be reached in 2005. Unfortunately, it was never implemented.
Image: Getty Iamges/AFP/J. Aruri
Annapolis, 2007
In 2007, US President George W. Bush hosted a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, to relaunch the peace process. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas took part in talks with officials from the Quartet and over a dozen Arab states. It was agreed that further negotiations would be held with the goal of reaching a peace deal by the end of 2008.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Thew
Washington, 2010
In 2010, US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to and implement a 10-month moratorium on settlements in disputed territories. Later, Netanyahu and Abbas agreed to relaunch direct negotiations to resolve all issues. Negotiations began in Washington in September 2010, but within weeks there was a deadlock.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Milner
Cycle of escalation and ceasefire continues
A new round of violence broke out in and around Gaza in late 2012. A ceasefire was reached between Israel and those in power in the Gaza Strip, which held until June 2014. The kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June 2014 resulted in renewed violence and eventually led to the Israeli military operation Protective Edge. It ended with a ceasefire on August 26, 2014.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Paris summit, 2017
Envoys from over 70 countries gathered in Paris, France, to discuss the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Netanyahu slammed the discussions as "rigged" against his country. Neither Israeli nor Palestinian representatives attended the summit. "A two-state solution is the only possible one," French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said at the opening of the event.
Image: Reuters/T. Samson
Deteriorating relations in 2017
Despite the year's optimistic opening, 2017 brought further stagnation in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. A deadly summer attack on Israeli police at the Temple Mount, a site holy to both Jews and Muslims, sparked deadly clashes. Then US President Donald Trump's plan to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem prompted Palestinian leader Abbas to say "the measures ... undermine all peace efforts."
Image: Reuters/A. Awad
Trump's peace plan backfires, 2020
US President Donald Trump presented a peace plan that freezes Israeli settlement construction but retains Israeli control over most of the illegal settlements it has already built. The plan would double Palestinian-controlled territory but asks Palestinians to cross a red line and accept the previously constructed West Bank settlements as Israeli territory. Palestinians reject the plan.
Image: Reuters/M. Salem
Conflict reignites in 2021
Plans to evict four families and give their homes in East Jerusalem to Jewish settlers led to escalating violence in May 2021. Hamas fired over 2,000 rockets at Israel, and Israeli military airstrikes razed buildings in the Gaza Strip. The international community, including Germany's Foreign Ministry, called for an end to the violence and both sides to return to the negotiating table.
Image: Mahmud Hams/AFP
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Centrist resistance
But the bill is not only opposed by political opponents but even centrists in Netanyahu's government have argued against a "nation-state" bill, calling it unnecessary and noting that the 1948 Declaration of Independence already proclaimed Israel a Jewish state.
They have accused Netanyahu of pandering to right-wingers.
During his upcoming visit to the Middle East, Trump is expected to discuss how he plans to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians - a goal that has eluded US presidents for decades. He is also expected to meet Abbas during his trip.
Odeh told the Times of Israel, "The danger of this bill is that it creates two classes of citizens."
