Israeli ministers reject controversial loyalty legislation bill

Jerusalem - An Israeli ministerial committee voted down Sunday a controversial proposal which would have required a loyalty oath and service to the state for citizenship. Media reports said only one party in the coalition - the ultra- nationalist Yisrael B'Teinu (Israel Our Home) supported the bill, while ministers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conservative Likud part, the centre-left Labour Party, and the religious- nationalist HaBayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home) and ultra-Orthodox Shas parties voted against it. The proposed bill would have required anyone seeking Israeli citizenship to state that 'I pledge to be loyal to the State of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state, to its symbols and values, and to serve the state in any way asked of me in military service as required by law.' The proposal, initiated by Yisrael B'Teinu legislator David Rotem, would also have allowed the Interior Minister to cancel the citizenship of Israelis who did not undergo military or alternative national service. The bill was widely seen as being aimed at Israel's Arab citizens, since Yisrael B'Teinu leader Avigdor Lieberman, now foreign minister, questioned their loyalty during the recent election campaign. Although Yisrael B'Teinu officials stressed the bill was aimed at all Israelis, they said it was important given what they described as the anti-Israel behaviour of Israel's Arab citizens during the 2006 Lebanon War and the turn of the year Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. The ministers' rejection of the proposal means it will not be presented to the Knesset as government-sponsored legislation, although Rotem could still submit it to the plenum as a private member's bill.