Alex Sobel has taken a stand against Israel’s Nation State Law by tabling an Early Day Motion in Parliament.
The Member of Parliament for Leeds North West has demanded the Government act against a law, narrowly passed in the Israeli Parliament, which specifies the nature of the nation state of Israel as the nation state of Jewish people.
Critics argue that this law goes against the Israel’s founding document that promised to ensure equal rights ‘irrespective of religion race or sex’. There are fears now that this would legitimise practices that discriminate against the country's Arabic population.
In the EDM Alex wrote:
That this House notes with concern the Nation State Law passed in the Israeli Knesset by just 62 votes to 55; further notes this law enshrines the concept that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people as a basic law and alters the application of the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty in court rulings, and permits judges to give priority to Israel's Jewish character in their rulings; notes in addition that Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that the Palestinian Authority must acknowledge aspects of the law as a condition for a future peace agreement, putting the two state solution at risk; declares that democracies by their character treat all their citizens equally before the law and are committed to the pluralism of peoples and that this law abandons those basic tenets; and therefore calls on the Government to urge the Israeli Government to repeal the Nation State Law and to enshrine equal status to all its citizens.
This is the second EDM put down by Mr Sobel regarding Israeli Government policy. Mr Sobel is also campaigning for Israel to end their policy of rejecting foreign national visas to the Palestinian Territories.