Israel’s President Condemns Pending Nation-State Bill

Using the largely ceremonial position of president to make a rare incursion into the heart of Israeli politics, President Reuven Rivlin warned that the pending “Nation-State Bill” which was launched in order to lend de jure strength to Israel’s bona fides as the “Jewish state” will, instead, harm Jews around the world. According to Rivlin, the measure is discriminatory, in particular its language that allows Jewish-only communities, its removal of Arabic as an official language of the state, and the imperative to rely on Jewish law as the precedent for judges to rely upon when there is no other. Rivlin’s position places his bully-pulpit at odds with the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu. The PM has plenty of other opposition on the nation-state bill including the legal adviser to parliament and the attorney general.