When former Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and President Mahmoud Abbas, as representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), held secret talks with members of Israel’s Labor Party in 1993, they were dealing with a secular political party that headed a coalition also including non-Zionist religious parties. When Yasser Arafat, as chairman of the PLO's Executive Committee, signed a letter that same year recognizing the State of Israel, the secular coalition government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had not tried to define Israel as the national homeland for the Jewish people.

These documents through which the PLO and Israel officially recognized each other needed to be signed before Arafat and Rabin could publicly meet and approve the Declaration of Principles (the Oslo Declaration). Once the letters were signed Sept. 9, the two leaders met publicly in Washington, on Sept. 13, and the world witnessed their famous handshake on the White House lawn. These documents — the bedrock of the current Palestinian-Israeli agreements — are now in jeopardy. Speaking to Voice of Palestine Radio, Yasser Abed Rabbo, PLO secretary-general, used the word “dangerous” to describe the possible change in the legal character of Israel currently under discussion.

Although the issue of the Jewish character of Israel has been part of domestic debates for decades, on Nov. 23 the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a legal step on the matter. In a 14-6 vote, his Cabinet approved the latest draft of a controversial 14-item bill to declare Israel “the national homeland of the Jewish people.” According to Netanyahu, the measure will give Arab citizens of Israel equal individual rights while bestowing Jews in Israel and around the world national rights, an assertion fiercely rejected by many in Israel.

The PLO Central Committee met Nov. 25 and resolved that the draft Israeli bill, if enacted, will “abolish the mutual exchange agreement reached in 1993.” The PLO stated, “The bill would legalize racialism and discrimination in all aspects of life and would constitute a continuation of Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to transform Israel into a country that is based on racism, seeking to exploit this bill, in the name of law, to perpetuate and justify racism at the exclusion of all others.”