JERUSALEM: An Israeli Cabinet committee is pushing forward a bill that downgrades Arabic as an official language of the country.
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted Sunday to present the controversial 鈥渘ation-state bill鈥� that states 鈥渢he right to realize self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.鈥�
The bill has to pass several rounds of legislation in parliament for it to become law. Critics charge that, if passed, it could undermine Israel鈥檚 balance of being both a Jewish and democratic state by harming the rights of the country鈥檚 minorities. Currently, both Hebrew and Arabic are Israel鈥檚 national languages. The bill states that Hebrew would be the lone national and downgrades Arabic to 鈥渁 special status in the state鈥� whose 鈥渟peakers have the right to language-accessible state services.鈥�