Israel Democracy Institute experts hash out one of the country's thorniest bills.
By JPOST.COM STAFFThe Knesset building(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The new Nation-Sate law being promoted by Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) and the bill's author MK Avi Dichter (Likud) is set to go to second and third readings in the Knesset's winter session next month. One of the most controversial sections of the proposed law deal with emphasis on Jewish Law in the judiciary, the treatment of Diaspora Jews and the new status of the Arabic language in the state.The Israel Democracy Institute presents you the following podcast hosted by The Jerusalem Report's Editor Steve Linde and featuring IDI President Yochanan Plesner and his two deputies Professor Yedidya Stern and Professor Mordechai Kramnitzer.The Institutes experts call for the nixing of the current legislation, which ignores the issues of equality and human rights, believing that such a move would throw out of balance the Jewish and democratic elements of the state and deepen the already existing rifts in the Israeli society.The three propose to hold a legislative process that would place the Jewish people as an equal principal to the state's democratic obligation to equality in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. They want to thoroughly, respectfully and transparently draft a new law corresponding with a genuine effort to reach a wide political and social agreement.