higher status than the Arabic language, and as the state's official language. Arabic on the other hand suffers from constant blurring of its status and lack of clarity about its accessibility to the native speakers of the language. According to the bill proposal, the Arabic language would receive a special status which would require the state to enable accessibility to all native speakers of the language." In an open letter, Reuven Rivlin, Israel's president, raised his concern over an earlier draft of the legislation, saying it "could harm the Jewish people worldwide and in Israel, and could even be used as a weapon by our enemies". To register his displeasure with the law, Rivlin, fulfilling his duty as president to sign all laws by the Knesset, signed his name in Arabic. Responding to Arab legislators who objected to the proposed basic law, MK Avi Dichter, said that, "The most you can do is to live among us as a national minority that enjoys equal individual rights, but not equality as a national minority." In an interview with Haaretz, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, who supervised the passage of the law, said that, "Through the law, we can prevent family reunification [of Israeli citizens and Palestinians] not only out of security motives, but also motivated to maintain the character of the country as the national homeland of the Jewish people." He also insisted to reject the inclusion of equality in the legislation to avoid undermining the Law of Return. Reaction In Israel Retired Israeli Chief Justice Aharon Barak, who led the "constitutional revolution" that established judicial review in the 1990s, said that "This is an important law". Barak drew a distinction between national and civic rights: "The recognition of the minority rights of Israel's Arab citizens does not grant them a national right to self-determination within the State of Israel. They are a minority whose identity and culture must be protected, but if they want to realize their right to national self-determination, they can only do it in a state of their own, not in Israel." He also accepted the argument that the right to equality does not belong in this law, but insisted that it be made explicit (rather than just implied) in Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. Heads of Israel's Druze community petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court in protest against the law, and 100 Druze reservists complained that though