Israel to Require Arab Citizens to Declare Loyalty?
oath-of-loyalty-israel
Israel's Israel Beitenu party, which is the second largest party in the govt. after the Likud, ran on a platform of repealing Israeli citizenship from anyone who doesn't make a pledge of fidelity to the State of Israel.
There was never much doubt that the suggestion would be thrown out. The Likud party never supported it, in truth none of the practical parties supported it.
If the offer were made into law it definitely would have sparked noteworthy unrest and backlash from Israel's Arab citizens, who are Palestinians who remained in Israel after the war of 1948. While they are overpoweringly law-abiding and cooperative with Israelis, their loyalty is to their Palestinian roots and Palestinian brethren living under occupation.
as well as creating conflict and violence, the proposal would have been completely at odds with Israel's claims of being a democracy. No democracy that I know of legally requries its citizens to pledge their commitment.
And thirdly, this offer was deadly to Israel because the bulk of Israelis see hassidic Jews as disloyal to the state. For the most part they avoid military service and national service, and many live off of executive support checks while not studying the Bible instead of working. If an oath of loyalty were required of Israeli Arabs, many Israelis would also demand such an oath from Hassidic Jews. This would cause non secular tension, in-fighting amongst Jews, and an entire lot of headaches for Israeli executives who are normally held hostage by ultraorthodox parties. The Israeli presidency wants to get round this situation at any cost.
But nonetheless, the simple fact that a party making such a proposal received an enormous number of votes is unsettling for Israeli Arabs and liberal Israeli Jews. We should hope the pragmatism and a want need to coexist will reign supreme over, instead of increasing nationalism and mutual suspicion.
Get a
Middle East political map collection and other Middle East related resources at
Printable Maps.
Post a Comment