The Knesset's House Committee and Law, Constitution and Justice Committee met July 10 for a joint session about the nationality bill promoted by the ruling coalition. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to present the bill for a Knesset plenum vote in the coming days, before the Knesset ends its summer session on July 22.

In an unusual move, President Reuven Rivlin berated the Knesset members debating the government’s controversial law proposal. “In the name of the Zionist vision, are we willing to lend a hand to the discrimination and exclusion of a man or a woman on the basis of his or her origin?” Rivlin wrote. The president referred to Article 7(b) of the proposed bill, which states, “The state may allow the community, including members of one religion or of one nationality, to maintain separate communal settlement.” According to Rivlin, this language allows any community, without limitations, to exclude all ultra-Orthodox Jews, for example, or Israelis originating from Arab states, or Israeli Druze or members of the LGBT community. The country’s top civilian reminded the lawmakers of their ultimate responsibility for preserving the delicate balance between the Jewish and democratic underpinnings of the state.

The president noted that his unusual appeal follows a conversation with Netanyahu. As of the writing of these lines, there is no significant indication that Rivlin managed to sway Netanyahu’s ardent support for the legislation, which enshrines Israel’s status as the nation-state of the Jewish people. After all, how can one expect a politician who has turned discrimination into an art form to be alarmed by a discriminatory law?

Netanyahu has based his career on the principle of divide and conquer. He owes his current, fourth term in large and perhaps decisive measure to a video message he issued on Election Day in 2015 warning, “The right-wing government is in danger. Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls. Left-wing organizations are busing them out.” He relentlessly builds ever higher walls between Jews and Arabs, left-wing and right-wing adherents, and even manages to alienate the non-Orthodox Jewish communities overseas. Under Netanyahu’s leadership, the government has generated a storm of legislation designed to persecute civilians and organizations seeking to ease the burden of tens of thousands of Palestinians who have the misfortune to reside in Area C of the West Bank under Israeli control. Netanyahu will be remembered as someone who turned human rights activists and peace organizations seeking a modicum of justice for a defenseless (Palestinian) population into “Israel haters” and “collaborators with the enemy.” In the Netanyahu era, the European Union is also the enemy. This is probably the organization to which Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit referred when he warned Netanyahu of the implications the nationality bill for Israel’s international standing.