mick silver
29th March 2014, 11:01 AM
Israel Changes its Laws to Limit Arab Membership in Parliament
POSTED AT: 8:10, MARCH 12, 2014 (http://real-agenda.com/2014/03/12/israel-changes-its-laws-to-limit-arab-membership-in-parliament/) BY LUIS R. MIRANDA (http://real-agenda.com/author/luis-miranda-brenes/)
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http://real-agenda.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Untitled-1-685x300.png
In a growing climate of political polarization, the Israeli coalition government led by the conservative Benjamin Netanyahu, won approval Tuesday in parliament for a new law increasing the threshold of electoral representation from the current 2% to 3.25%. After this reform, the composition of the Parliament would leave out two Arab parties as well as the centrist Kadima, founded by the late Ariel Sharon, who won elections in 2006 and 2009.
This new electoral law is part of an ambitious institutional reform being implemented by the coalition government of Israel, that resulted from the elections held a year ago with a mixture of centrist, right and extreme right parties. Today, the Israeli Parliament will vote on a law drafted by the Jewish Home party that requires that any territorial changes are submitted to a referendum when they include lands in East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights.
On Thursday, the Parliament will vote one of the most controversial laws of this term: the integration of ultra-Orthodox Jews in conscription. So far, they have enjoyed substantial perks to devote his life to studying Jewish texts. The government, on the initiative of the Centrist Party,Yesh Atid, has agreed that it will be deemed as a crime not to become part of it. The ultra-Orthodox parties, with 18 seats, have threatened with mass protests and to boycott the state if this bill is passed.
Each of these laws is a project of a different faction of the coalition government. The five parties that have agreed to vote up in block to prevent defections in the most sensitive issues, such as integrating students of religion in the military. Never since the founding of the state in 1948 an Israeli party has achieved an absolute majority to govern alone.
The parliamentary opposition, which binds the Labour and the left to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and Arab groups, boycotted these reforms because they consider them an assault on the democratic principles of the country. The groups did not participate in any discussion or voting and so the law was passed Tuesday with 67 ‘ayes’ and not a single ’no’. The Israeli parliament has 120 seats.
The opposition leader, the Labour party member, Isaac Herzog, said Tuesday that the Netanyahu government is “taking measures of hatred and exclusion, trying to expel a number of Parties.”
Israel has 7.9 million inhabitants, of which 1.6 million are Arabs. There are three groups in the Knesset with representatives of that ethnic group, of which two would be out if the demands of the new electoral law were applied. In the elections of last year, the Balad and Hadash parties did not reach 3% of votes. The coalition of United Arab List and Taal achieved 3.65% of ballots, although that’s no guarantee of anything, because in 2006 it did not 3.1%.
As admitted by one of the leaders of the Arab parties, Jamal Zahalka of Balad, Arab formations have already started discussions for possible unification facing upcoming elections. “This new law deprives our community of true parliamentary representation,” he said Tuesday. “The crossing of that threshold should unify parties that have similar ideologies,” he added.
Benjamin Netanyahu justified the electoral reform saying that “the people of Israel needed to have a stable and strong government, better governance and less splinter parties.”
The father of electoral reform, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who leads the ultraconservative Israel Our Home – Yisrael Beiteinu – accused the opposition of “hypocritical crybaby”. “Even after the vote we still have one of the lowest thresholds of the enlightened world in parliamentary representation,” he said at a hearing in the Knesset. ,,, http://real-agenda.com/2014/03/12/israel-changes-its-laws-to-limit-arab-membership-in-parliament/
POSTED AT: 8:10, MARCH 12, 2014 (http://real-agenda.com/2014/03/12/israel-changes-its-laws-to-limit-arab-membership-in-parliament/) BY LUIS R. MIRANDA (http://real-agenda.com/author/luis-miranda-brenes/)
[/COLOR]
http://real-agenda.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Untitled-1-685x300.png
In a growing climate of political polarization, the Israeli coalition government led by the conservative Benjamin Netanyahu, won approval Tuesday in parliament for a new law increasing the threshold of electoral representation from the current 2% to 3.25%. After this reform, the composition of the Parliament would leave out two Arab parties as well as the centrist Kadima, founded by the late Ariel Sharon, who won elections in 2006 and 2009.
This new electoral law is part of an ambitious institutional reform being implemented by the coalition government of Israel, that resulted from the elections held a year ago with a mixture of centrist, right and extreme right parties. Today, the Israeli Parliament will vote on a law drafted by the Jewish Home party that requires that any territorial changes are submitted to a referendum when they include lands in East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights.
On Thursday, the Parliament will vote one of the most controversial laws of this term: the integration of ultra-Orthodox Jews in conscription. So far, they have enjoyed substantial perks to devote his life to studying Jewish texts. The government, on the initiative of the Centrist Party,Yesh Atid, has agreed that it will be deemed as a crime not to become part of it. The ultra-Orthodox parties, with 18 seats, have threatened with mass protests and to boycott the state if this bill is passed.
Each of these laws is a project of a different faction of the coalition government. The five parties that have agreed to vote up in block to prevent defections in the most sensitive issues, such as integrating students of religion in the military. Never since the founding of the state in 1948 an Israeli party has achieved an absolute majority to govern alone.
The parliamentary opposition, which binds the Labour and the left to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and Arab groups, boycotted these reforms because they consider them an assault on the democratic principles of the country. The groups did not participate in any discussion or voting and so the law was passed Tuesday with 67 ‘ayes’ and not a single ’no’. The Israeli parliament has 120 seats.
The opposition leader, the Labour party member, Isaac Herzog, said Tuesday that the Netanyahu government is “taking measures of hatred and exclusion, trying to expel a number of Parties.”
Israel has 7.9 million inhabitants, of which 1.6 million are Arabs. There are three groups in the Knesset with representatives of that ethnic group, of which two would be out if the demands of the new electoral law were applied. In the elections of last year, the Balad and Hadash parties did not reach 3% of votes. The coalition of United Arab List and Taal achieved 3.65% of ballots, although that’s no guarantee of anything, because in 2006 it did not 3.1%.
As admitted by one of the leaders of the Arab parties, Jamal Zahalka of Balad, Arab formations have already started discussions for possible unification facing upcoming elections. “This new law deprives our community of true parliamentary representation,” he said Tuesday. “The crossing of that threshold should unify parties that have similar ideologies,” he added.
Benjamin Netanyahu justified the electoral reform saying that “the people of Israel needed to have a stable and strong government, better governance and less splinter parties.”
The father of electoral reform, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who leads the ultraconservative Israel Our Home – Yisrael Beiteinu – accused the opposition of “hypocritical crybaby”. “Even after the vote we still have one of the lowest thresholds of the enlightened world in parliamentary representation,” he said at a hearing in the Knesset. ,,, http://real-agenda.com/2014/03/12/israel-changes-its-laws-to-limit-arab-membership-in-parliament/