The Israeli cabinet approved on 23 November a bill that would officially define Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, thus reserving national rights for Jews only. A move that’s been met with dismay among Israel’s closest allies and in the Israeli public at a time of heightened tensions between the country’s Jewish population and the Arab minority. With an election campaign underway in Israel, the proposed law –which is now headed to the upcoming parliament -is expected to be a major issue in the political debate.
Since its foundation, Israel has boasted of being a full democratic country -the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel’s advocates claim- at least going by the 1948 Declaration of Independence that promised equal rights for ‘’all its inhabitants’’. That document carefully identified Israel as both Jewish and democratic, giving equal footing to both characters.
Today’s contentious bill, backed by Prime Minister Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition allies, gives primacy to Israel’s Jewish character above its democratic nature. Should it become law, it would ensure Jews enjoy fuller rights than Arab citizens -making up at least 20% of Israel’s population- who would be denied national rights as a people. .
According to Gershon Baskin, founder and co-chairman of Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), the issue of Israel’s Jewish status was first officially raised by Tzipi Livni, representing Israel’s liberal Kadima-led coalition in Annapolis prior to Netanyahu’s election in 2009.
Netanyahu then made recognition of Israel as a Jewish state a key demand for any peace agreement with the Palestinians, which has been the sticking point between the two sides. In light of that, Baskin explained, ultra-nationalist members of the Knesset have been pushing for a draft law that would reinforce the Jewish character of the state of Israel.
Avishay Ben Sasson, analyst at the Center for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy (Molad), argued that the new measure came as part of Netanyahu’s manoeuvring to retain his power grip and gain the loyalty of hardliners in his Likud Party, after losing popularity in a particularly tense climate since last summer. The Prime Minister came under fire from many of his most senior ministers for his handling of the crisis in Gaza. The government was later struggling to prevent an uprising following the recent events in Jerusalem.
One of the most violent summers ever seen in Israel/Palestine, as co-founder of Grassroots Jerusalem Micha Kurz described it recalling key moments like the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, followed by the murder of Palestinian teen Mohammad Abu Khdeir by a group of young Jewish extremists, which formed the backdrop for Israel’s offensive on Gaza.
An increasingly supremacist sentiment has since become visible on the Israeli streets, and the language used in the Israeli politics and media has shifted far right.
‘’We’re no longer hiding it today, we’re openly racist and violent’’, the Israeli grassroots activist noted, ‘’And we have a government now saying it’s time to declare that we’re a Jewish state’’.
Kurtz, who’s also fundraising and advocacy coordinator, underlined there is some kind of competition in the ruling majority over who can prove to be more nationalist, with a largely absent left in Israel’s politics.
Ben Sasson, who studies politics and economics at Hebrew University, added that the right settler religious section of the Israeli society played a part in promoting Israel’s Jewish national identity over the years, and recently supporting the nation-state bill as a way to block what they warned –and perceived would be the rise of the Zionist left in Israel.
‘’Proponents of the legislation want to set in stone one law enshrining the identity of Israel which is ‘what the state should be’ ’’, the Israeli analyst said reminding that the Jewishness of Israel is already embodied in many laws.
A wise move on the right’s part, he argued, was to defend the bill on the basis of Israel’s non-controversial Jewish attribute: if there’s nothing wrong about the law, those who oppose it would be thought to refuse that there should be a state for the Jewish people.
‘’It’s ridiculous, nobody in Israel feels that they’re at threat for being Jewish’’, Ben Sasson continued, ‘’This is a spectre they’re using because a lot of what they do is based on fear politics’’.
‘’The law won’t change anything on the ground since Israel is a Jewish state’’, Kurtz stated, ‘’It’s been a democracy for Jews for decades’’.
For US-born Israeli Baskin, the draft law is totally unnecessary because there’s no question about Israel’s Jewish identity. He believes the majority of Israelis want to preserve the country’s democratic tradition.
Critics including key Israeli allies like the U.S. and the European Union are concerned the draft would hinder the country’s international reputation as a ‘democracy’, particularly in laws and practices that target minorities.
‘’It adds up to the alienation towards Israel among Jews abroad’’, IPCRI founder commented, ‘’A lot of Jewish students in US find it more difficult to identify with Israel while the ongoing occupation is driving the entire world against it’’.
On the other hand, Ben Sasson observed that Israel gets wide support of Western states whilst Netanyahu’s government has been a bad listener when foreign allies have warned over Israel’s occupation policies, creating a feeling that Israel doesn’t care about what the world says because the world is against it.
In his view, the Israeli Premier is more worried about holding to his chair than Israel being a respectable member in the democratic family of nations.
‘’ Netanyahu doesn’t mind paying the price of the international disquiet from Israeli actions as long as he can make sure that he will be the next Prime Minister’’, the analyst hinted.
‘’At least I’m glad that we’re out of the closet now’’, grassroots activist Kurtz argued, ‘’It will make even clearer to the world what Israel is’’.
Israel’s parliament dissolved announcing early elections for March 17 following collapse of the ruling coalition although, Ben Sasson stressed, the government did not fall because of disagreements over the proposed law. He thinks Netanyahu used that to divert the attention from the real issues that his coalition failed to deal with.
Beyond the coalition crisis, the law is expected to be part of the debate ahead of the elections.
Kurtz pointed to mass disempowerment of Palestinians in Jerusalem as one crucial problem as the Palestinian Authority has no jurisdiction there.
‘’We don’t realize that if you’re not Jewish in Israel you’re not an equal citizen, without having the right to vote to begin with’’, he voiced out.
In Baskin’s opinion, if the discussed draft had to pass, it would simply continue to give the state’s Arab minority a sense that they don’t have a place in Israel.
The effects of the law would not be far reaching in the daily life. One change could be the downgrading of Arabic from its current status as an official language of Israel, making Hebrew the state’s only formal language.
Kurtz anticipated that people other than Jews would be expectedly affected by such law as Israel is already pushing minorities out through restrictions in religious practice, housing, education and employment. He mentioned that the Christian community is dwindling.
The cabinet debate on the legislation came against the background of recent tensions between Jews and Arabs after months of turmoil in Jerusalem and deadly attacks on both sides in the city and beyond.
‘’Reminding Palestinians they’re second-class citizens, would be a harmful and ill-timed move’’, Molad’s analyst said, ‘’It will make them further disenfranchised’’.
Among the bill’s opponents are centrist Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid, the social-democratic party Meretz, some of the left-wing leading parties, Israeli Arab members of the Knesset and the Druze community. The draft has also drawn criticism from major American Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee. Many Israelis on the right, including some coalition members, are against it.
The coming month and a half will tell if Netanyahu will come out with a stronger coalition in the upcoming elections, and guarantee Jewish superiority in the Israeli state through the new Basic Law bill. Either way, it will be unrealistic for Netanyahu to meet demands of the international community and his right-wing contenders.
Originally published in Perspektif Magazine