Members of Israel’s Arab minority on Saturday night led a mass protest in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square against a contentious new law that critics have said marginalizes the state’s non-Jewish citizens.
The rally marked further fallout from the explosive Nation-State Law and came a week after thousands of Druze, also members of the Arab minority, packed the same city square last week.
The 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence defined the country as a Jewish and democratic state, and the government has said that the bill merely enshrines the country’s existing character.
Photo: AFP
However, critics have said that it undercuts Israel’s democratic values and sidelines the country’s non-Jewish population, namely the Arab community, which makes up 20 percent of the country.
One clause downgrades the Arabic language from official to “special” standing.
Israeli media reported that tens of thousands of Jews and Arabs attended the protest.
Photo: Reuters
Some Arab protesters waved Palestinian flags and others held signs reading “equality.” Some knelt and prayed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted footage on Twitter of protesters waving the Palestinian flags.
“No better testament to the necessity of the Nation State law,” he wrote.
Ayman Odeh, an Arab Member of the Knesset, told reporters: “This is the first time that tens of thousands of Arabs have come to Tel Aviv with Jewish democratic groups. They came to say this is not the end of the demonstrations, but the first serious demonstration against the Nation-State Law.”
Many Jewish Israelis, including top retired security officials and politicians, have also harshly criticized the law.
Omar Sultan, from the Arab city of Tira in central Israel, said that he was protesting to send a message to Netanyahu.
“This law is against us, against the Arabic language, against peace, against our future in this land. We are the real people of this land, we can’t agree on this law,” he said.
Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy full citizenship rights, but face discrimination in some areas of society, such as jobs and housing. They share the ethnicity and culture of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and often identify with Palestinian nationalism, rather than Israeli.
Tens of thousands of Arab-speaking Druze last week packed the same square in the heart of Tel Aviv, Israel’s cultural and commercial center. The Druze are followers of an esoteric faith and are considered fiercely loyal to the state and serve in the Israeli Defense Forces, unlike most of the country’s other Arab citizens.
Over the years, members of the Druze community have risen to prominence in the military and in politics. Some Druze have said that they feel betrayed by the law and several Druze military officers have said that they would stop serving in response to it, sparking fears of widespread insubordination.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of