Nov 4, 2018

Senior Catholic clerics in Jerusalem called Sunday for Israel to repeal a controversial law giving Jews a "unique" right to self-determination in the country.

"We must draw the attention of the authorities to a simple fact," bishops and archbishops of the Roman Catholic, Syrian Catholic, Armenian Catholic and Greek Melkite churches said in a joint statement.

"Our faithful, the Christians, our fellow citizens, Muslim, Druze and Baha’i, all of us who are Arabs, are no less citizens of this country than our Jewish brothers and sisters."

The nation-state act was passed by parliament in July and forms part of Israel's basic laws -- a de facto constitution.

It speaks of Israel as the historic homeland of the Jews and demotes Arabic from its former status as an official language.