“We will never recognize the Jewishness of the state of Israel,” Abbas said at an Arab League meeting in Cairo on Saturday, the Times of Israel reports.
Last week the Israeli cabinet approved controversial draft legislation defining Israel as a Jewish state, a proposal which will now be subject to a vote in parliament. Opponents, who include Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, believe that the law is unnecessary and damaging to already tense relations with Palestinians. The legislation “goes against a Jewish and democratic Israel,” Livni told the Times last week, and threatened to break up the coalition government over the issue.
The proposed bill is called “Israel, the Nation-State of the Jewish People,” and is intended to institutionalize Israel’s Jewish character, Jewish law as a basis for legislation, and in some draft forms seeks to remove Arabic’s status as an official language. According to the Jerusalem Post, Abbas on Saturday accused Israel of working toward “consolidating Apartheid through a number of laws.”
According to the AP, the ministers at Saturday’s meeting agreed to back Abbas’ request for a UN Security Council Resolution, which proposes to set a November 2016 deadline for Israeli withdrawal to its pre-1967 borders.
Arab League Chief Nabil Elaraby responded, “This is a basic issue, this is a very important issue, and the Arab League agrees with it.” The Palestinian Authority president told the meeting he had previously, after US requests, postponed such step, but said that the Palestinians now could not wait any longer
