Israel’s Parliament on Thursday approved a controversial piece of legislation that defines the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people but, critics warn, sidelines minorities. The government says the bill, passed in the early morning hours, will merely enshrine into law Israel’s existing character. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the legislation’s passage a “historic moment in the history of Zionism and the history of the state of Israel.”

Israel’s Parliament on Thursday approved a controversial piece of legislation that defines the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people but, critics warn, sidelines minorities. The government says the bill, passed in the early morning hours, will merely enshrine into law Israel’s existing character. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the legislation’s passage a “historic moment in the history of Zionism and the history of the state of Israel.”