Does new law tilt Israel away from its democratic values?

The reaction to Israel’s defining new law, akin to a constitutional amendment, could not have been more starkly divided.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads a coalition government considered to be the most right-wing in Israel’s history, called the newly minted law a “landmark,” and posed for a celebratory selfie in the parliamentary chamber. Elsewhere in the building, Israeli-Arab lawmakers tore copies of the legislation to shreds.

The split-screen reaction at the Knesset last Thursday followed immediately after the parliament narrowly passed legislation that enshrined the state of Israel as an exclusively Jewish national project.

Hailed by supporters as long overdue, and derided by detractors as harmful or unnecessary at best, the legislation brings the decades-long tension between Israel as a democracy and as a Jewish state to a full boil.

Dubbed, “Basic Law:

'What do we need this for?'Jewish self-determinationGlobal trend