A hearing is taking place in the Knesset on a new bill that would allow admission committees in the Galilee and Negev to filter candidates seeking to live in their towns. Knesset Member Yisrael Hasson of the Kadima party, who initiated the bill said "The bill is intended to preserve the ability to fulfill the Zionist vision in practice."
Some small communities in the more rural Negev and Galilee areas are concerned about the growing Arab population in proportion to the Jewish agricultural towns.
Hana Sweid of the Hadash communist party said the new bill was racist and "reveals the true face of Israel Knesset which enacts laws closer every week to an apartheid state." Sweid is Israel's first female Arab Knesset member.