Thursday's vote exposed the self-righteous hypocrisy, not only of the government, its ministers and the Knesset coalition (including Shinui), but also of the Shin Bet security services. In recent years, Shin Bet has been making great efforts to foster its image as the more tolerant body within the Israeli government with regard to the Arab minority.

However, it must be said that the purpose of the legislation is more than just to fill a breach in our line of defense. It satisfies the secret desire of right-wing parliamentarians (Shinui included, as it turns out) and to allow their nationalist inclinations to run rampant.

The present government is composed of parties whose primary reaction to Arabs, including Israeli Arabs, is one of foreignness and suspicion, if not outright racism. These parties represent the lion's share of the Jewish public in Israel. Only a minority of the establishment and the government elite (coalition and opposition) has developed tolerance toward and acceptance of Arabs.

The yearly reports of Sikui, a watchdog association, bear this out, noting the inability of both government institutions and universities to hire Israeli Arabs in key positions and to apply egalitarian standards where they are concerned.

The amendment to the Citizenship Law infringes on the basic right of all people to fall in love and marry without paying the price of being uprooted. It is not only a rabble-rousing response to the distress of the security situation, but also an attempt to distance as many Palestinians as possible from Israel. In this, it emphasizes the racist character of the legislation and strengthens the argument that Israel's claim to be a Jewish and a democratic state at the same time, is groundless.