Lapid tried to embarrass Benny Gantz - but the proposal to change the nationality law fell through

July 29, 2020   

The Yesh Atid party is submitting a bill to the plenum today (Wednesday) for debate to change the Nation-State Law, with the aim of embarrassing the Blue and White party - and causing them to confront the Likud. Don't be a sucker: You may be entitled to a lot of money from National Insurance. The change in the law was Benny Gantz's first election promise. Only 21 opposition MKs supported the amendment to the law, and 53 coalition MKs voted against it. Gantz was not in the plenary. Yesh Atid chairman, MK Yair Lapid, wrote: "The State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, it is also a democratic state that considers the principle of equality a sacred foundation." The initiator of the bill, MK Radir Kamel Merih, said in the plenary: "Gantz's first political statement, even before he founded Blue and White, was to amend the Nation-State Law. When I recently asked to meet with him and Ashkenazi, in preparation for putting the bill up for a vote, they refused.".

The Joint List announced that it would abstain from voting on changing the law.

 

Yesh Atid's bill to amend the nation-state law failed. Gantz did not participate in the vote pic.twitter.com/62Bvt5X85e

— Daphna Liel (@DaphnaLiel) July 29, 2020

The party's statement reads: "The Nation-State Law has no place in the statute book of a society that claims to be democratic, in which all citizens are equal. The existence of the law is clear evidence of the State of Israel's structural racism towards the Arab and Palestinian public in Israel.".