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Israel: Yet another retrograde step

The just passed law requiring non-Jewish citizens to swear allegiance to Israel, the Jewish State, cannot be seen as anything other than provocative, a retrograde step for the so-called peace process, downright stupid and an effective poke in the eye to world opinion. And what it will do to or for the country itself can only be questionable.

The ramifications could be be widespread, as Gideon Levy, writing for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz explores in "The Jewish Republic of Israel":

"Remember this day. It's the day Israel changes its character. As a result, it can also change its name to the Jewish Republic of Israel, like the Islamic Republic of Iran. Granted, the loyalty oath bill that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to have passed purportedly only deals with new citizens who are not Jewish, but it affects the fate of all of us.

From now on, we will be living in a new, officially approved, ethnocratic, theocratic, nationalistic and racist country. Anyone who thinks it doesn't affect him is mistaken. There is a silent majority that is accepting this with worrying apathy, as if to say: "I don't care what country I live in." Also anyone who thinks the world will continue to relate to Israel as a democracy after this law doesn't understand what it is about. It's another step that seriously harms Israel's image."

The Guardian editorialises about the new law in "Israel's loyalty oath: Discriminatory by design":

"The question that lies behind this is why, and why now? Are these the actions of a nation prepared to make a historical compromise, end occupation and live in peace with its neighbourhood? If they are and we are all wildly misinterpreting this, why alienate and incite the very people who could have helped by their example bring a historic settlement about, people who have accepted the existence of Israel, who have never in their history taken up arms against it? This applies to Christian as well as Muslim. The opposite is happening. The Palestinian Israeli experience of inequality and discrimination only promotes the view that being a minority in a state with a Jewish majority is rapidly becoming untenable".

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