RAMALLAH, October 11 (JMCC) - Arab members of Israel's parliament denounced new amendments to Israel's citizenship law that will make it a requirement for citizens to swear allegiance to the Jewish and democratic state of Israel.

The law is viewed as one of a series of measures meant to marginalize Israel's 20 percent Arab minority.

This modification is not democratic, said member of Knesset Hanin Zoabi. This law shows that [Israeli foreign minister Avigdor] Lieberman is the one who actually governs, the one who crystallizes the political culture in Israel.

Lieberman, head of a right wing party, was one of the originally backers of the changes, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also stood behind the amendments.

These series of racist laws reflect the true intentions of the government of Israel, said parliamentarian Jamal Zahalka. The Jewish state is the origin of the scourge upon the Palestinian people, and now it calls upon them to declare their allegiance to it.

The law comes in tandem with legislation preventing the commemoration of the Nekba, or the fleeing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in 1948. A proposed law punishes those who would incite against the state by denying its Jewish and democratic nature.

Hassan Jabareen, director of the Center for Minority Rights in Israel, said that this law means that Palestinians do not have any civil rights in Israel.