Arabs oppose Israel’s nation-state law at Tel Aviv, wave Palestinian flags

Tel Aviv, Aug 13: The Arab community in Israel has not taken the Jew nation’s ‘only Jew State’ law in its stride. They are opposing this nation-state law passed by the parliament of Israel sometime back.

Recenlty, over 30000 Arabs gathered to oppose the nation-state law in Tel Aviv rally and defying the request from the organisers waved Palestinian flags, chanted anti-Israel slogans even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the display justified the need for the nation-state law.

Israeli Arabs held the protest against the nation-state law on August 11 in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square. They waved the Palestine flags to vent their anger and discontent about the law restricting the state of Israel only for the Jews.

The protesters carried banners in Arabic that read “This is our nation, this is our home, Arabic is our language”.

It was the second such demonstration against the legislation in as many weekends, with last week’s gathering, led by the Druze community, drawing at least 50,000 people.

Dozens of the protesters at Saturday’s protest carried Palestinian flags, defying a request by the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee, which organized the demonstration, not to wave the flags at the event. At times, some participants chanted in support of Palestine and against Israel, including cries of “With blood and fire, we will redeem Palestine,” and “Millions of martyrs are marching to Jerusalem.”

Protesters marched from Rabin Square to the Tel Aviv Museum Square, where a rally took place under the banner: “No to the nation-state law, yes to equality.”

Other protesters carried signs in Hebrew and Arabic demanding: “Justice and equality now” and others calling the law “apartheid.”

The Arab Higher Monitoring Committee had organized some 300 buses for the event, filled with participants from at least 26 non-governmental organizations, a majority of them left-wing.

No high-profile politicians or figures were set to participate at the rally.

Labor Party chairman Avi Gabbay, head of the Zionist Union, said that while he backed efforts to amend the nation-state law, he would not attend the protest since he said it would include Palestinian nationalist elements.

“I can’t go to a protest where they are calling for the ‘right of return,” he told Hadashot. “I can go to a protest that calls for equal rights,” he added.

The nation-state law, passed by the Knesset July 19, for the first time enshrines Israel as “the national home of the Jewish people,” and says “the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.” It also defines Arabic as a language bearing a “special” status, effectively downgrading it from its de facto status as Israel’s second official language.

Arab citizens make up some 20 percent of Israel’s population.