Justice Minister Tzipi LIvni on Sunday scuttled a vote planned for the Ministerial Committee on Legislation on whether to enshrine in law the definition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

Livni received support from Yesh Atid to undermine Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's effort to advance the bill. Livni used her powers as chairwoman of the ministerial committee to postpone the debate on the bill as per request by Science and Technology Minister Jacob Perry (Yesh Atid). Netanyahu responded that he would transfer debate on the bill from the ministerial committee to the Knesset plenum, so that he could take more control of the matter.

Livni's move angered right-wing ministers. "From our perspective, the bill should have been passed today," said Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Bayit Hayehudi party.



"We will no longer cooperate with Yesh Atid and Hatnuah on coalition issues. The die has been cast. I will not support any bill proposed by [Finance Minister Yair] Lapid or Livni."



Senior Bayit Hayehudi officials said that Livni had "pulled a fast one on something that had already been agreed and that was meant to pass. She is using every possible tactic to get rid of the bill, but she won't succeed."



"You are sabotaging the work of the committee," Minister Uri Ariel (Habayit Hayehudi) yelled at Livni. The minister reportedly rapped the table in rage. Livni, who by then had declared the meeting over and left, returned to read to the others the regulations empowering her to postpone the debate and then exited again.

"The justice system, which recognizes the democratic nature of Israel, will also have to recognize its nature as the national state of the Jewish people," Netanyahu told ministers earlier Sunday at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. "We will advance the nation state law today, and while it will go through many changes, at the end of the day we will be able to make clear that Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people, along with a guarantee of equal rights for all of its citizens," Netanyahu said.

The current iteration of the bill — Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People — is sponsored by coalition whip MK Zeev Elkin (Likud), and is considered the most extreme of a series of similar legislative proposals that have been raised this year. In addition to giving Israel’s nation-state status for the Jewish people the force of constitutional law, it specifies that Jewish law is to be a source and “inspiration” for new legislation and judicial rulings. A previously scrapped clause, under which the Arabic language would no longer be an official language of the state, instead enjoying “special status,” has been restored.