Israel Matzav

Government fails to define Israel as a Jewish state

The government still can't define Israel as a Jewish state. So now they're trying to enshrine the Declaration of Independence, a document that does not mention the word 'God.'

MK Ruth Calderon (Yesh Atid) submitted a bill turning the Independence Scroll into a Basic Law Tuesday, after talks broke down on a coalition bill defining the Jewish nature of Israel.

Calderon, coalition chairman Yariv Levin (Likud Beytenu) and MK Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) worked together for the last month in hopes of drafting an agreed-upon version of "Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People." Shaked and Calderon began talks several weeks earlier, and Levin joined in after proposing a similar bill.

The bill is meant to anchor in legislation the definition of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. There are several versions of the bill, beginning with one proposed by former Kadima MK Avi Dichter in the last Knesset. Each defines Israel differently.

Calderon submitted her version of the bill Tuesday, after negotiations with Levin and Shaked were unsuccessful. Her new bill recognizes the Independence Scroll as the founding document of the State of Israel and a basis for legal dispute and matters of identity.

"As long as we don't have a constitution," Calderon wrote in the bill's explanatory section, "the Independence Scroll is a basic, recognized legal document with important principles of the country's identity."

The Yesh Atid MK added that the courts have used the document and its principles for decades.

The bill is meant to declare Israel as a Jewish State, but Calderon emphasized that she means Judaism as a nation and culture, not a religion.

What an appropriate day to submit a bill that tries to exclude God and Judaism from a bill defining Israel as a Jewish state.

Read the whole thing.  The destruction is happening again.

Labels: God, Israel is a Jewish state, Shiva Asar b'Tamuz

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:05 PM