Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: arabs in israel, israeli arabs, oath of loyalty, palestinian israeli
Israeli Arabs Required to Pledge Allegiance?
oath-of-loyalty-israel
Israel’s Israel Beitenu party, which is the second biggest party in the government after the Likud, ran on a platform of repealing Israeli citizenship from anyone that doesn’t make a pledge of faithfulness to the State of Israel.
There had been never much doubt the suggestion would be thrown out. The Likud party never supported it, in reality none of the practical parties supported it. Israel Beitenu ran on a populist platform intended to stir up the population, but any party that’s use to being in power knows how deadly of a step this measure would’ve been.
If the proposal were made into law it definitely would have sparked unprecedented unrest and backlash from Israel’s Arab voters, who are Palestinians who stayed in Israel after the war of 1948. Any attempt tp disconnect them from their natural faithfulness would have sparked concern.
in addition to making conflict and violence, the offer would’ve been completely at chances with Israel’s claims of being a democracy. No democracy that I know of legally requries its voters to pledge their fidelity. Freedom of thought and freedom of expression are central to any democracy.
And thirdly, this offer was dangerous to Israel because the bulk of Israelis see hassidic Jews as disloyal to the state. This would cause spiritual tension, in-fighting among Jews, and an entire lot of headaches for Israeli governments who are normally held hostage by ultraorthodox parties. The Israeli presidency wants to avoid this situation at any cost.
So that the proposal never actually had an opportunity of being accept by the cupboard. But nevertheless, the easy fact that a party making such a proposal received a giant number of votes is unsettling for Israeli Arabs and liberal Israeli Jews. Let’s hope the pragmatism and a desire need to coexist will dominate, instead of increasing patriotism and mutual suspicion.
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