Dubai: A divided cabinet approved on Sunday a bill to anchor in law Israel’s status as the nation-state of the Jewish people, legislation critics say could undermine its democratic foundation and the rights of Palestinians. Experts speaking to Gulf News say that the bill, which is expected to pass through the Israeli Knesset as it begins debate on Wednesday, only serves to put more obstacles in the path of a peace process.

Despite its highly controversial clauses which observers interpret as ‘racist’, experts do not anticipate a strong international condemnation.

“Since the majority of the government coalition is from the right, the bill will pass, in the Knesset, unless there is a judicial objection,” said Jihad Harb, a Palestinian writer and analyst based in the west Bank city of Ramallah.

“But the dangerous thing about this bill is that is will be a basic law, and basic laws can’t be challenged or objected to any decision coming out of it in the supreme court,” Harb told Gulf News in a telephone interview.

The Israeli government passed the bill on Sunday by 14-7 majority, and some press reports talked about bitter exchanges during the meeting between Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and his justice minister Tzipi Livni, who was quoted as saying she won’t change her objection even if she was asked to quit her post.

The bill, Palestinian analysts says, is actually “legalizing” discrimination against citizens of Israel and discriminating between Jews and Palestinians.

Nearly 1.2 million Palestinians living in 1948 areas won’t be entitled to equal rights of Jews, and this is another risky hidden element in the new bill, they added.

Palestinians in 1948 areas have “an important role” to play in rejecting the bill inside and outside the parliament, Harb said.

“The issue is going to be to what extent this bill is contradicting with the civil rights of the Palestinians and other minorities,” said Rami Nasrallah, director of international peace and cooperation centre in occupied east Jerusalem.

“I don’t anticipate a strong reaction from the international community, including the Europeans, who initially gave the Jews the right to have their country,” he said, in reference to the Balfour Declaration, which gave the Jews the right to establish in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people.

“Israel describes itself as the country for all Jews in the world, and any Jew anywhere in the world has the right to be Israeli, while the Palestinians, the original inhabitants of the land, are barred from being part of this country,” Harb said.

It is estimated that Palestinians (Muslims and Christians) make up to 20 percent of the population of the 1948 areas.

However, other analysts believe the Israeli regime will face a predicament in defining who is a Jew, and which Jews from different countries from around the world can be citizens.

The nation-state bill is related to continuous Israel attempts to push the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in favour of Israel by reinstating the Jewish identity of the country and eliminating any chance for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, said Atef Abu Saif, a Gaza-based political scientist.

“It is related to the conflict over the holy sites in occupied east Jerusalem, and the attempt to vacate the Palestinians from east Jerusalem,” he added to Gulf News.

Recent developments in occupied east Jerusalem and tit-for-tat killings between Palestinians and Israelis, are among the reasons behind the bill, said Harb.

“These developments prove that there are two communities in occupied East Jerusalem. All efforts exerted by the Israeli government to isolate the city from the West Bank have failed,” added Harb.

Also, Netanyahu is using the law to boost his image ahead of the upcoming elections, and to show the Israelis that he is even more right than the extreme right politicians in Israel and be elected for the fourth time to the top position.

Already, Nasrallah said, Israeli authorities have started imposing since last July restrictions in Occupied Jerusalem, erecting cement blocks separating Palestinian neighbourhoods from Israeli colonies and banning Palestinians from accessing Israeli roads.