Israel's Arab minority rallies against new nation-state law
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended the law, which says only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country and downgrades Arabic from an official language, saying it is necessary in order to fend off Palestinian challenges to Jewish self-determination. "The law legitimizes racism," said Laila al-Sana, 19, from a Bedouin village in Israel's southern Negev desert. Israel's Arab population comprises mainly descendants of the Palestinians who remained on their land after the 1948 war at the time of the creation of the modern state of Israel.