Moderate Israeli leaders yesterday accused the government of risking the international legitimisation of the long-rejected assertion that Zionism is racism after ministers voted overwhelmingly in favour of legislation that could designate some areas of the country for Jewish use only.
Critics warned that a Bill, if approved by parliament and upheld by the Supreme Court, would turn Israel into an apartheid state and betray the country's founding Declaration of Independence, which guarantees "development of the country for the benefit of all its residents" and promises "complete social and political equality to all its citizens, regardless of religion, race, or gender".
Proponents of the legislation argued that it was necessary to safeguard the Jewish character of the state, and for reasons of national security, and denied that it was racist or undemocratic.
The proposed Bill is only at the start of what is sure to be a long and bitter legislative process, with no certainty that it will become law. It is opposed by the government's own top legal adviser, the Attorney-General, and by the Labour Party, the largest in the Knesset.
Under the terms of the Bill, the Jewish Agency, whose mission is to attract Jews living abroad to come to Israel and establish Jewish communities, would be able legally to refuse to sell State land to non-Jews. At present, the State owns 93 per cent of all land in Israel.
The proposal appears to conflict directly with Supreme Court rulings to the effect that the agency could not refuse to sell land to Israeli Arabs. And although the Justice Minister, Mr Meir Sheetrit, abstained in the cabinet vote, the Justice Ministry warned that the legislation threatened to damage the already fragile fabric of relations between Israel's Arabs and Jews.
Nevertheless, the proposal was overwhelmingly endorsed by ministers on Sunday, with the backing of Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon, and would likely have greater support among Israeli Jews than in years past because relations between the five million Jewish Israelis and the million-plus Arab Israeli minority have become unprecedentedly strained as the Intifada has raged these past 21 months.
The cabinet vote was tabled at short notice - with most of the Labour ministers out of the room - but after years of legal wrangling over the issue. The dispute actually began in 1995 when an Israeli Arab couple, Adel and Iman Ka'adan, appealed to the Supreme Court against a decision by the secretariat of a village in the north of the country, Katzir, to refuse them permission to build a house there because they are Arabs.
Two years ago, the court found in their favour, ruling that the decision was discriminatory, and therefore illegal. But the court's ruling was never implemented.
In a bid to circumvent the court, a right-wing Knesset member, Rabbi Haim Druckman of the National Religious Party, drafted a proposal that would allow the Jewish Agency, which administers considerable areas of state land, to allocate it "in accordance with its goals" - a phrase intended to enable the designation of land solely for Jewish use. It was that proposal which the cabinet approved on Sunday, with only the former Justice Minister Mr Dan Meridor and the sole Labour Minister in the room, Transport Minister Mr Ephraim Sneh, voting against it.
Mr. Meridor indicated yesterday that the legislation, if passed, could legitimise the assertion that Zionism was a racist ideology - a claim that was formally endorsed by the United Nations from 1975 until 1991. "As to the charge that Zionism is racism - what are we saying here?" Mr Meridor asked.
Mr Limor Livnat, the Education Minister from Mr Sharon's Likud party who tabled the proposal, said yesterday it was vital to "preserve the balance" between Israel's Jewish and democratic character.
But Labour leaders called it racist, ugly, discriminatory and intolerable, and vowed to fight it in parliament and through the courts.