Adalah demands Israeli officials block advancement of 'Cultural Loyalty' amendment

On 31 October 2018, following the approval of the memorandum to amend the Culture and Art Law ("Loyalty in Culture"), Adalah –The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel submitted a letter to Hadas Farber, legal advisor of the Ministry of Culture and Sport, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, and Deputy Attorney General Dina Zilber, demanding that the bill not be advanced in the Knesset. 

In her letter to the Israeli officials, Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher noted that the premises mentioned in this amendment, such as the “Nakba Law”, are intended primarily to enable the unconstitutional exploitation of the power of the majority of the population to suppress the activity and views of the minority. 

The premise of "denying the existence of the state as a Jewish and democratic state" has already been removed from the final version of the proposed amendment to the Basic Law: The Knesset (the "Impeachment Law") because of its ambiguity and the concern it will be used in order to exploit the power of the majority in the Knesset in order to expel Arab MKs. 

In the proposal in question, this premise is also intended to allow the abuse of political power held by the majority.

Attorney Zaher further points out that the proposed amendment to the law follows the rejection of Israeli Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev's requests of the Ministry of Finance to enforce the “Nakba Law”, which highlights the flawed political considerations behind its submission. 

Attorney Zaher stressed that similar to the "Nakba Law", the "Loyalty in Culture" bill infringes upon constitutional rights, primarily freedom of expression based on political and national perspectives.

CLICK HERE to read the letter [Hebrew]

(Thumbnail photo: Miri Regev/Facebook)