Israel Passes Jewish Nation-State Law

Image taken from Wikimedia Commons

On Thursday, July 19th, the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, passed a law declaring Israel to be a Jewish nation-state. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition praised the move as “historic”, but it has also garnered significant controversy.

The law became Israel’s fourteenth “basic law”, a set of laws which serve as a quasi-constitution in Israel, which has no other official constitution. Basic laws can be amended only by a majority in the Knesset and are harder to repeal than other laws. This new law declares Israel to be the homeland of the Jewish people and states that “the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people,” according to The Times of Israel’s translation. It also establishes Israel’s flag, emblem, and anthem to be official symbols of the state and declares a united Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital, among other clauses. The law passed by a vote of 62-55, with two abstentions, after a lengthy and vigorous debate.

Supporters argue that the law simply codifies the idea that Israel is the Jewish state and that this is crucial to the protection of Israel’s Jewish character. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Eugene Kontorovich, international law director at the Kohelet Policy Forum, notes that several European nations’ constitutions have similar provisions establishing national self-determination, claiming that, “Far from undermining democracy, the Basic Law puts Israel in line with other Western nations.” Yoram Hazony wrote an article in 2014 about the need for a Jewish state law, noting that in recent years, Israel’s Supreme Court has issued decisions that have eroded Jewish national self-determination. Hazony argues that this could call into question Israeli policies such as the Law of Return, which automatically offers Israeli citizenship to any Jew, or public school curriculums which teach Jewish History and Bible. He maintains that the “Jewish State Law reaffirms Israel’s commitment to the political principle of national self-determination, which made the existence of a free Jewish nation a reality in our time.”

The law has received criticism, both from within Israel and from the international community. After the bill was passed, Arab lawmakers shouted and ripped up copies of it. Critics claimed that this bill goes against principles of equality and democracy and have expressed concern that certain provisions will give Jews privileges and special rights over minorities. In response, defenders maintained that the law doesn’t harm minorities. Moreover, Kontorovich raises the point that “the measure comes against a backdrop of land policies that discriminate against Jews.” Examples include an Israeli Supreme Court decision giving Israeli Arabs the right to exclude Jews from living in their communities, while separately denying that right to Jews. Kontorovich posits that “the new Basic Law…creates a normative counterweight” to policies such as these.

Concerns have also been raised about a clause which designates the Arabic language as having a “special status” instead of being an official language, although a subsequent clause emphasizes that this will not “harm the status given to the Arabic language before this law came into effect.”

The law that was passed is a diluted version of a previous draft. One contentious clause would have allowed for the establishment of “separate communities,” which critics feared would lead to segregation. Instead, the law declares that “the state views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation. Another clause, which would have required Israel to invest resources in maintaining an affiliation with all Jews, received backlash from ultra-Orthodox groups, who feared this would promote Jewish pluralism within Israel. The clause now refers merely to diaspora Jewry.

After the passage of the law, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared: “This is a defining moment in the annals of Zionism and the annals of the State of Israel…Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people and respects the rights of all its citizens.”