BICOM

Benny Gantz broke his silence yesterday by vowing to do “all he could” to make the Nation-State Law more inclusive for Israel’s minorities.

Former Israel Defence Forces Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. (res.) Gantz and leader of the Israel Resilience Party, said yesterday he would “work to amend the Nation-State Law” while surrounded by activists, mostly from the minority Druze population, who marched to his home as part of a demonstration against the law. It was the first time Gantz announced a policy position on a political issue since registering his new party on 27 December.

Gantz told the protestors: “We have a blood alliance, but just as importantly, we have a life alliance. We need to make sure that we build this partnership and this alliance together, as it should be.”

The Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish ‎People was passed  ‎last year after months of heated debates between ‎coalition partners. Though largely symbolic, the ‎law states that ‎‎“Israel is ‎the ‎historic homeland of the Jewish ‎people, and they ‎have ‎an exclusive right to national ‎self-‎determination in ‎it.”

Druze leaders have heavily criticised the law, saying it “strengthens nationalism, racism, hatred and factionalism in Israeli society and seriously harms minorities and the national strength”. They argue it casts the Druze community as second-class citizens despite the minority group’s commitment to Israel throughout its 70-year history. Druze men, unlike other minorities in Israel, are required to serve in the Israel Defence Forces. Last year the Israeli Government offered to introduce new legislation to recognise the contribution of Druze and other Israeli minorities as part of a compromise deal to reduce opposition to the Nation-State Law.

The Druze protest is led by Brig. Gen. (res.) Amal Asad, who plans to hold similar protests at homes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The New Right party leaders Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, MK Orly Levy-Abekasis and Kulanu Party leader Moshe Kahlon.

The New Right party issued a statement claiming that Gantz’s comments to the Druze showed that “Gantz joined the left wing”.

Former minister Gideon Sa’ar, who has expressed his desire to return to a prominent position in the Likud primaries, said: “If the first sentence coming out of Benny Gantz is against the most important achievement of the national camp in the outgoing Knesset, this accurately places him against that camp. I respect Gantz’s military past, but I’m a little less impressed by his understanding of constitutional law. There’s no reason to amend or change the Nation-State Law.”