Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at cabinet meeting, January 15 2017
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at cabinet meeting, January 15 2017Flash90

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu urged coalition members to expedite the passage of new legislation which would enshrine Hebrew as the sole official language of the State of Israel and formally declare Israel the “national home” of the Jewish people.

Addressing party leaders at a coalition meeting on Sunday, the Prime Minister called upon coalition members to introduce the Nationality Law not as a government-backed bill, as originally planned, but as a privately-sponsored bill.

Last Sunday, the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, a special government committee which decides which bills coalition members will be obliged to back on the Knesset plenum, voted to give its support for the Nationality Law – but to wait 60 days after the initial Knesset vote to put together a new version of the bill.

But coalition chairman David Bitan (Likud) suggested the government circumvent the two-month delay and have the legislation introduced as a privately sponsored bill, which would then be backed by the coalition based on the government’s decision last Sunday.

Netanyahu gave his backing for Bitan’s suggestion on Sunday, calling on coalition members to support a privately sponsored Nationality Law bill.

On Wednesday, the government-backed Nationality Law bill passed the initial vote in the Knesset plenum 48-41.

During the coalition meeting Sunday, Netanyahu also expressed his optimism that the government would remain stable and hold together until the next statutorily-mandated date for elections on November 5th, 2019.