Weekly Commentary: Adalah Removes The Mask: Why Need 'Jewish Nation-State'
Law

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 27 November 2014

Critics of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s support for a 'Jewish
Nation-State' Law assert that there is no need for such a law.

The absence of such a law, however, creates a vacuum that an activist
Supreme Court could exploit at some time in the future to radically change
the country.

The Arab Israeli NGO, Adalah, lists on its website some of the legislation
that it wants the Supreme Court to void:

Let’s consider two laws as described by Adalah:

Name: Law of Return
Enacted: 1950
Status: Active
Themes: Citizenship

Description: Allows every Jewish person to immigrate to Israel and
automatically become a citizen of the state. The law also applies to the
children and grandchildren of Jews, as well as their spouses and the spouses
of their children and grandchildren. No comparable law exists to guarantee
the rights of Palestinians to immigrate or receive citizenship, even if they
were born in the area that is now the State of Israel.

Name: Foreign Property Ownership - Israel Lands Law (Amendment No. 3)
Enacted: 2011
Status: Active
Themes: Land and Planning Rights

Description: The amendment, passed in March 2011, prevents any person or
party (public or private) from selling land or renting property for a period
of over five years or from bequeathing or transferring private ownership
rights in Israel to “foreigners”. Under the law, foreigners are any persons
who are not residents or citizens of Israel, or Jews, who have the automatic
right to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return (1950).

And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Any Israeli Government activity overseas that is directed to specifically
help Jews in the Diaspora can be construed as being discriminatory by it’s
very nature.

It could be argued in court that it is discriminatory for the Israel
Antiquities Authority to sanction the removal of an Arab era structure at a
dig site in order to reach a Temple era structure – or for a national site
to feature a First Temple era layer of structures for viewing rather than
the Jebusite era findings beneath it.

There’s simply no way to predict just how far afield an activist Supreme
Court might go one day.

And the passage of a well drafted 'Jewish Nation-State' Law could go a long
way towards preventing this from happening.


Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il
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IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis

Since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on Arab-Israeli relations

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