Claiming Israel Is the “Nation State of the Jewish People” Is Widely Criticized

In November, a proposal for a basic law “Israel, the Nation-State of the Jewish People” passed in the Israeli Cabinet by a vote of 14-6, with two centrist coalition parties opposing it. For the bill to become law it must be approved by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

There is much opposition to this proposed legislation by those who argue that it would make Israel’s non-Jewish citizens — 20 per cent of the population — less than equal. Ahmed Tibi, a veteran Arab member of the Knesset, says that that there has long been tension between the halves of the term “Jewish democracy,” as Israel defines itself. He notes that the proposed legislation simply confirms that the Jewish and democratic state is fiction.” He described Israel instead as a “Judocracy” that would never recognize the collective rights of “a minority that has long suffered discrimination.”

The proposed Nationality Law makes clear that even the limited democracy which Israel now enjoys is under serious threat. Editorially, The New York Times (Nov. 25, 2014) declares that, “Since its founding in 1948, Israel’s very existence and promise has been based on the ideal of democracy for all its people. Its Declaration of Independence, which provides the guiding principles for the state, makes clear that the country was established as a homeland for the Jews and guarantees ‘complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.’ That is why it is heartbreaking to see the Israeli cabinet approve a contentious bill that would officially define Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, reserving ‘national rights’ only for Jews … To go back and emphasize nationality and religion in defining the country … runs counter to the long-term movement among liberal democracies toward a more inclusive vision of a state … Having experienced the grievous legacies created when a government diminishes the rights of its people, we know this is not the path Israel should take.”

Prof. Juan Cole of the University of Michigan argues that, “Saying Israel is a Jewish state in the sense of race would be analogous to insisting that the U.S. is a ‘white’ state and defining Latinos as ‘brown.’ And saying it is a Jewish state in the sense of observant believers would be like asserting that the U.S. is a Christian state even though about 22 per cent of the population does not identify as Christian (roughly the same proportion as non-Jews in Israel) … Netanyahu’s demand is either racist or fundamentalist and is objectionable from an American point of view on human rights grounds either way.”

Avi-noam Bar-Yosef, president of the Jewish People Policy Institute, said that any distortion of the balance between Israel’s Jewish and democratic character “may stain Israel in the eyes of the free world and distance diaspora Jews.”

Writing in Washington Jewish Week (Nov. 27, 2014), Israeli journalist Sarabeth Lukin notes that, “The bill upends the concept of Israel as ‘a Jewish and democratic state’ and downgrades democracy to a secondary status. It declares that Israel is first and foremost ‘the nation-state of the Jewish people,’ providing all of Israel’s 8 million citizens with the vague promise that they will be afforded ‘personal rights in accordance with every law.’ The proposed law also declares that only the Jewish people enjoy the right to national self-determination and that housing can be determined by religion or nationality. And if Jewish law, Halacha, takes precedence over civil law in both legal and legislative proceedings, as some scholars interpret the bill, Israel will find itself in the company of other theocratic Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran.”

Beyond this, the claim that Israel is the “nation-state” of “the Jewish people,” is an ideological construct that has no relationship to reality. The “nation-state” of American Jews is the United States, just as the “nation-state” of British Jews is the United Kingdom and the “nation-state” of French Jews is France, etc.

If Israel seeks genuine peace, it should content itself with being the nation of all of its citizens and abandon the myth that it is the “nation- state” of Jews who are citizens of other countries. •