The Plain Dealer · 20 July 2018
CP-2018-052
Israel defined as Jewish nation
Controversial legislation raises concerns about minority rights
By Ilan Ben Zion, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Transcribed from the clipping
JERUSALEM — Israel's parliament on Thursday approved a controversial piece of legislation that defines the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people, but which critics warn will sideline minorities.
The legislation, which passed 62-55 with two abstentions, makes Hebrew the country's national language and defines the establishment of Jewish communities as being in the national interest.
How this transcription was made
Date confirmed on the page (eva-folio). Adjudicated corrected against the printed page: The photo caption printed above the headline reads: 'Arab lawmakers stand up in protest during a Knesset session in Jerusalem on Thursday. Israel's parliament approved legislation on Thursday that def. Legibility fair; any passage that could not be read is omitted rather than reconstructed.
Context added by this archive
2018 GROUP. Headline phrase for the law: 'Israel defined as Jewish nation' - the only headline in the batch to carry both 'Jewish' and 'nation', though not as the compound 'Jewish nation-state'. The exact phrase 'nation-state law' does not appear in the headline or deck; the body's first sentence has 'defines the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people'.
WHO LOSES, in the headline furniture: not named - the deck says only 'raises concerns about minority rights', which is the vaguest formulation in the 2018 group. ARABIC DEMOTION: NOT mentioned in the passages recovered.
The story says the law 'makes Hebrew the country's national language' and stops there - it reports the promotion of Hebrew without reporting the demotion of Arabic. That omission is the single most useful finding in this record. Photo caption names 'Israeli Arab lawmaker Ahmed Tibi' (spelled Ahmed here, Ahmad in the Los Angeles Times).
PHOTO CAPTION (verbatim): “Israeli Arab lawmaker Ahmed Tibi (center) tore up a copy of the legislation after it passed in the Knesset on Thursday.”
Cite this clipping
"Israel defined as Jewish nation," The Plain Dealer, 20 July 2018. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2018-052. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2018-052
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Last updated 2 November 2026
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1724 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the news agency that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. A city here is where the newspaper was published, not where the story came from, and on most records it was taken from the masthead.
Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-2018-052.
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