Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel is a state 'only of the Jewish people'

Israeli prime minister admits the state is not one for 'all of its citizens' in response to a critical Instagram post.

By Al Jazeera

March 11, 2019 "Information Clearing House" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is "not a state of all its citizens", in a reference to the country's Palestinian Arab population, adding that all citizens, including Arabs, had equal rights.

However, in his comments on Instagram, Netanyahu referred to a deeply controversial law passed last year declaring Israel the nation-state of the Jewish people.

"Israel is not a state of all its citizens," he wrote in response to criticism from an Israeli actor, Rotem Sela.

"According to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people - and only it."

The law, passed last summer, downgraded the Arabic language from an official language to a language with "special status", making Hebrew the only official language, and stipulated that "Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it". 

It also states that an undivided Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

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