A demonstration has take place in Jerusalem today against a controversial draft law which enshrines Israel's status as the Jewish national homeland.
The rally took place outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house and was organised by Israel's Peace Now settlement watchdog.
The watchdog said the rally was "an opportunity to let the democratic camp's voice be heard" against the draft law, which embodied "nationalism, racism and aggression" threatening to "ruin our country."
As the demonstration got underway, police said that arsonists had torched an Arab-Jewish school in Jerusalem and scrawled racist anti-Arab slogans on its walls.
"Go home, release us from your oppressive, racist, extremist and inciting regime," MP Tamar Zandberg of the opposition Meretz party said at the demonstration.
The new bill was endorsed by cabinet on Sunday. Critics of the bill say it will come at the expense of democracy and that it will institutionalise discrimination against minorities, including Arabs.
Mr Netanyahu insists the law would balance Israel's Jewish and democratic characteristics.
Protesters held signs reading "we won't let you ruin the country" and "the nation-state law of the right-wing government is democracy for Jews only."
Police said approximately 800 people attended the demonstration.
Meanwhile firefighters extinguished the fire at the "Hand-in-Hand" school, a short distance from the prime minister’s residence.
Slogans such as "death to Arabs" and "no coexistence with cancer" had been scrawled on the walls of the Arab-Jewish school, police said.
Several Israeli officials condemned the arson attack.
Education Minister Shai Piron described it as a "violent and despicable incident, which could undermine the foundations of Israeli democracy".
It is "a serious affront to the fabric of Jewish-Arab relations," he said in a statement.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said: "We won't let pyromaniacs and radicals disrupt public order."
"We will continue to denounce extremists and do everything necessary to restore security," he said in a statement.
The school has been targeted with racist graffiti in the past, most recently during Israel's summer war with Hamas militants in Gaza.
