Israel's Knesset has passed its first vote on a new bill defining Israel as 'a national home of the Jewish people'.

New legislation to cement the definition of Israel as a state belonging exclusively to Jews around the world is a "declaration of war" on Palestinian citizens of Israel, the minority's leaders warned this week.

The bill, which defines Israel as the "national home of the Jewish people", passed its first vote in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday, after it received unanimous backing from a government committee on Sunday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to get the measure on to the statute books within 60 days.

Among its provisions, the legislation - popularly known as the Jewish Nation-State Bill - revokes the status of Arabic as an official language, even though it is the mother tongue of one in five citizens.

Israel's population includes a large minority of 1.7 million Palestinians.