Gaza, ALRAY - Chairman of the governing coalition in (Israel) Yariv Levin is initiating a series of bills, as well as political maneuvering, to favor Israeli Christian citizens over Muslims, Israeli media reported.

Levin, a former military intelligence expert on Arabic language told Israeli daily Maariv “My legislation will award separate representation and a separate frame of reference to the Christian public, distinguishing them from Muslim Arabs.”

“This is an important, historic step that could introduce balance to the State of Israel, and connect us [Jews] with the Christians,” said Levin who hails from right-wing Likud party.

“I make sure not to refer to them as Arabs, because they’re not Arabs.” He added.

One of the bills initiated by MK Levin will allow Christian Arabs to register themselves as just “Christians” under “Nationality” in their ID cards, so they can officially distinguish themselves from Arabs, the daily reported.

The Israeli occupation pursues a racist policy toward Arabs and Muslims and Christians alike in the Palestinian occupied territories, through Judaizing the holy sites and displacing indigenous people from their homes and bringing groups of colonial settlers in their place.

Israeli occupation government already added fifth demand to his US-brokered negotiations with Palestinian Authority that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish state.”

According to Juan Cole, a Professor of History of the Modern Middle East and South Asia at the University of Michigan, there is a number of possible meanings for Jewishness: It can mean “those recognized by Talmudic law as members of the Jewish ‘race’ via maternal descent.”

“The latter is the legal definition of Jewishness in Israeli law itself, and for this reason we must presume that it is what Netanyahu has in mind. It can also mean “adherents of the Judaic religion,” and we can explore those implications, as well,” he adds.

“Of the some 6 million self-identified Jews in Israel, about 300,000 are not recognized as “Jewish” by the Chief Rabbi and there is no prospect of them being recognized as Jewish any time soon. They were allowed to immigrate to Israel because they had at least one Jewish grandparent, but if their mother was not Jewish neither are they,”

 “So if Israel is a “Jewish” state, is it a state for these (largely Russian and Ukrainian) “non-Jewish” Jews? Many of them are Jewish by religion, but not all are. None of them are Jewish by the Talmud.” Cole argued.