As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
Israel Approves a Loyalty Oath to the State
DarkCrawler
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/cabinet-approves-loyalty-oath-but-only-for-non-jewish-new-citizens-1.318212
So here it is, any non-Jew wishing to immigrate to Israel has to swear an oath that they won't interfere with it's apartheid nature.
What I find ironic that Jews aren't required to swear an oath to the state being democratic. They have no obligation to keep it up.
Replace the term "Jewish" with any other ethnicity or religion. The whole oath is a massive oxymoron.
And fuck, they could have added in a couple of other amendments that would not have made it seem so blantantly racist, but no.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/justice-minister-jews-should-be-required-to-sign-loyalty-oath-too-1.318177
This isn't also the end of this, since Yisrael Beiteneu wants to extend this to all non-Jewish citizens.
Equal rights my fucking ass.
And here is a pretty good Haaretz editorial:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-jewish-republic-of-israel-1.318135
Cabinet ministers on Sunday approved by a majority vote a controversial proposal which would require every non-Jew wishing to become a citizen of Israel to pledge loyalty to "the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."
Twenty-two ministers voted in favor of the proposal, including most of Likud, Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu. Eight ministers were opposed, five of them from the Labor Party and three - Benny Begin, Dan Meridor and Michael Eitan - from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud.
The divided cabinet spent hours deliberating Justice Minister Ya'akov Ne'eman's proposed amendment to the Law of Citizenship ahead of the vote, including a proposal by Ne'eman himself that the pledge apply to Jews and non-Jews alike.
Defense Minister and Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak warned earlier Sunday that he would vote against the proposal unless the cabinet agreed to include in the draft an allusion to Israel's Declaration of Independence.
Neither of those amendments was included in the final draft passed by cabinet.
As the cabinet began its deliberations Sunday, Netanyahu reiterated his support for the proposal. "The State of Israel is the national state of the Jewish people and it is a democratic state for all its citizenship," he said. "Jews and non-Jews enjoy equality and full rights."
"Unfortunately, there are many today who tried to blur not only the unique connection of the Jewish people to its homeland, but also the connection of the Jewish people to its state," Netanyahu added.
"Democracy is the soul of Israel and we cannot do without it. No one can preach democracy or enlightenment to us," Netanyahu added. "Zionism established an exemplary national state, a state that balances between the national needs of our people and the individual rights or every citizen in the country."
"There is no other democracy in the Middle East," he declared. "There is no other Jewish state in the world. The combination of these two lofty values expresses the foundation of our national life and anyone who would like to join us needs to recognize this."
Netanyahu's Labor coalition partners believe that his support for the loyalty oath is a sop to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, aimed at winning his Yisrael Beiteinu party's support for an extension on a settlement construction freeze that expired late last month. The U.S. and EU have urged Israel to extend the construction freeze, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has warned that he will quit the current round of peace talks if the moratorium on new building in the West Bank is allowed to expire.
So here it is, any non-Jew wishing to immigrate to Israel has to swear an oath that they won't interfere with it's apartheid nature.
What I find ironic that Jews aren't required to swear an oath to the state being democratic. They have no obligation to keep it up.
I swear that I will be a loyal citizen to the state of Israel, as a Jewish and democratic state, and will uphold its laws.
Replace the term "Jewish" with any other ethnicity or religion. The whole oath is a massive oxymoron.
And fuck, they could have added in a couple of other amendments that would not have made it seem so blantantly racist, but no.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/justice-minister-jews-should-be-required-to-sign-loyalty-oath-too-1.318177
This isn't also the end of this, since Yisrael Beiteneu wants to extend this to all non-Jewish citizens.
Equal rights my fucking ass.
And here is a pretty good Haaretz editorial:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-jewish-republic-of-israel-1.318135
DarkCrawler on
0
Posts
Will this affect enough people that it suddenly becomes worthy of attention? I doubt it.
which in itself tells you that it's not about equal rights
I mean, it's pretty clear that Israel is an apartheid state which is pretty fucking far from a democracy, but this is the first step of them officially moving towards putting it in paper.
A one-time inclusion of people doesn't equate to all-time inclusion.
Not very Democratic, either, but it's not my country and doesn't affect me.
Well it doesn't affect you, put it affects relatives of non-Jewish Israeli citizens who wish to become citizens of Israel, and non-Jewish Israel permanent residents who wish to become citizens.
Honestly, I'd expect an minister to have a better grasp of the laws of his country. You can already do that.
Article 11, Israeli Nationality Law.
Oh yeah, that's right, if your parent commits treason you can by virtue lose your citizenship too. What a beautiful democracy.
Israel is totally about equality though.
Jews are just more equal than the rest.
We must protect this by the more brutally authoritarian means possible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_infiltration
Creepy...
During the Bush years the RNC and Bush himself would have people going to rallies sign a loyalty oath but it was not legally binding.
Also Canadian government workers have to swear loyalty to the English crown.
That generally isn't used as a loyalty oath. It has been declared unconstitutional because of violating first amendment rights if required.
It aint cool when they do it either.
Well the Queen is the constitutional head of state in both Canada and Australia so that isn't really too bad, a weird sentiment coming from an Irishman I know but still..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_Allegiance_%28United_States%29
oh come on.
mass extermination camps! cattle cars! executions of thousands of people at a time!
there are innumerable comparisons that could be drawn- this snarky, rhetoric-heavy, substance-lite analog is tasteless and totally disproportionate.
How can you sleep at night, Mr. Beck?
This century's Apartheid South Africa is a better comparison. In my opinion it's pretty much there already. Not as blatantly, but this is simply another step towards it.
A) "So help me God" is optional
C) Every immigrant, regardless of their race or religion has to take it
D) Notice what I changed there
Let's also note the fucking huge elephant in the room - that if you immigrate to the US and swear loyalty, this does not prohibit you from advocating for the change of the government through legal channels. In comparison, Israel is saying that non-Jews immigrating must avow that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, and that if they then advocate for the change of either, then they break their oath.
Which is the fucked up part.
HOWEVER, anyone comparing Israel to nazi Germany over this is just using this as an excuse to attack israel for preconcieved whatevers. The oath doesn't say Jewish state, it says Jewish and Democratic state. If you're going to criticize them for their words, then read all of them.
Netanyahu allowed this to go through as a chit to keep Yisrael Beitenu on his side. Had he opposed this he would have lost YB, and the PM position along with them (due to the lack of seats in the coalition after that.)
This is not in any way a defense of Netanyahu. Bibi has shown plenty fo times that he is more worried about power than eace, and that is NOT what Israel needs in a PM, especially right now. What it is is a defense against all of the critics declaring that this is an attack by Israel against arabs. This is an attack against arabs by YB, not by Israel as a whole. It is unfortunate that politics allowed this to go through, and I SINCERELY hope that accountability for this sort of bullshit leads to YB being pushed out of power.
Blaming all of Israel for this actually takes accountability off of YB on the global stage, which is bad for everyone. Just like it is important that people recognize that the BNP are racist, so that their motivations are always clear, people need to realize just how awful YB and Avigdor Lieberman are, and how much damage they, personally, are doing to Israel, and to the Palestinians, and to all of the middle east.
unless you're Jewish
then you don't need to bother
which is exactly why the supreme court will strike it down when it is challenged