The PLO’s Executive Committee said in a statement that the law “emphasizes the unprecedented racist tendency that dominates the circle of decision-making in Israel.”

The committee added that the law is “directed against the Palestinian minority in the 1948 territories and part of the Zionist calls to displace the Palestinians from the 48 boundaries.”

It described the law as “a serious precedent” that will “torpedo all norms and conventions of human rights organizations.” The committee said the Israeli law “aims at provoking the Palestinian minority as the Israeli Minister Dan Meridor said.”

The Israeli government on Sunday postponed a vote on the “loyalty law”. The delay was made following pressure from Meridor, Minister Avishay Braverman, and Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer.

According to the loyalty oath bill, which was meant to be an amendment to Israel’s Citizenship Act, anyone seeking citizenship, including people moving to Israel and 16-year-olds obtaining their first identity cards, would have to make the following vow: “I pledge to be loyal to the State of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state, to its symbols and values, and to serve the state in any way asked of me in military service as required by law.”

The bill, initiated by Knesset (Parliament) Law Committee chairman David Rotem of the rightist Israel Beiteinu party, would also empower the interior minister to cancel the citizenship of Israelis who do not fulfill their compulsory military or alternative national service.

Israel Beiteinu officials said the legislation was important due to the anti-Israeli behavior of Arabs during the 2007 Lebanon War and the latest offensive on Gaza Strip.

The PLO said that the “international community should shoulder its responsibility to counter this Israeli policy to prevent inevitable deterioration in the region.”

Meanwhile, Arab Member of the Knesset Hanin Zo’bi warned that Israel might ignite a third intifada (uprising) if it fails to recognize the problem of the Arab community.

“We accepted a democratic, liberal state, we voted for the Knesset. But we are not just an internal issue — we are the litmus test of the whole problem. If Israel does not recognize this, conditions will deteriorate toward a third intifada,” she told the Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

Zo’bi, whose privileges were revoked by the Knesset two weeks ago for taking part in the Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla, rejected any suggestion that Arabs support violence.

“We don’t accept that. I don’t even like the word violent. Israel wants us to break the law and we won’t. I did not break any laws by being on the Mavi Marmara,” she said.

The Knesset decided to revoke her diplomatic passport, her privileges in exiting Israel and withheld any state funding of legal expenses. The act is seen as primarily a symbolic one as the privileges have little practical significance.

Zo’bi stressed that due to this pressure the Arab community was changing from one that saw itself as fighting for its civil rights to one that was part and parcel of the Palestinian struggle.

“It took us 40 years for us to admit that we were even Palestinians. Another 15 years passed before we realized that the peace process started under Oslo (peace accord) had been a disaster,” she said.

“The carrot-and-stick approach failed, and now we see Israel is prepared to throw away its liberal side to control us. We were passive once and now we are becoming active about our national identity.”

She also questioned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ ability to negotiate any state from Israel “bigger than a local authority”.

“We did not immigrate to Israel. Israel immigrated to us. We are the indigenous people of a land from which we are being gradually expelled,” she said.