Israel seeks law to ensure all foreign officials declare it a Jewish state

Israeli foreign officials, including ambassadors and diplomats, could soon be required to declare loyalty to Israel as “a Jewish and democratic state” before receiving their postings, if a bill advanced yesterday by the government panel comes into law.

Proposed by Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, the bill states that to be appointed as an ambassador, consul or head of any other diplomatic legation, the candidate must declare the following pledge: “I am committed to keeping faith with Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

“The job of the state’s envoys and representatives is to represent Israel and its values and work to advance its interests,” Cohen told the panel yesterday. “Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, and anyone who doesn’t recognise that cannot serve as an ambassador and represent Israel.”

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According to the Times of Israel, Cohen’s office explained that the bill was a response to last year’s failed attempt at appointing former member of the Israeli Knesset, Ghaida Rinawie-Zoabi, as consul in Shanghai. An Arab Muslim, Zoabi said that she does not connect to Israel’s “Jewish soul” before resigning from government.

“The background of the bill is to prevent the appointment of ambassadors such as Rinawie Zoabi, who did not recognise the State of Israel as Jewish and democratic,” said a statement from the foreign minister’s office.

Zoabi had said she was leaving in protest against an escalation in violence at a Jerusalem holy site as well as tactics by Israeli police at the funeral of a Palestinian journalist. However, she returned in order to “make gains addressing the needs of the Arab community” and after several of its local leaders placed her “under immense pressure” to do so.

Palestinian citizens of Israel, most of them Muslim, make up 21 per cent of Israel’s population and often complain of discrimination by the Jewish majority.

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