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ISRAEL'S NEW NATION-STATE LAW REPRESENTS A DRAMATIC RETREAT FROM DEMOCRACY
BY
ALLAN C. BROWNFELD
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In
July, the Israeli Knesset passed a new Nation-State law which moves the
country dramatically away from being a democracy, which it has always
claimed to be.
The new
legislation formally declares that the right of self-determination, once
envisioned to include all within its borders, is "unique to the Jewish
people." Arabic has been eliminated as an,official language. The law
has now become what in Israel is called a "Basic Law." meaning it has
become part of the Constitution. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. a
promoter of the law, declared, "This is a defining moment for the Srate
of Israel."
Claiming that
Israel is "the nation-state of the Jewish people," rather than a state
of all its citizens, 20% of whom are not Jewish, has a number of
problems. Israel, in fact, is not the 'nation-state" of American Jews.
The Zionist philosophy, to which Mr. Netanyahu and his government
adheres, argues that Israel is the "homeland" of all Jews and those
living elsewhere are in "exile." Repeatedly, the Israeli government,
with no mandate to do so, speaks in the name of "the Jewish people," the
majority of whom are citizens of other countries.
The
homeland of American Jews is the United States, and whatever the
Knesset passes into law, is completely irrelevant to Jews in other
countries. When terrorist attacks were aimed at Jewish sites in
Copenhagen, Brussels and Paris, Mr. Netanyahu urged the Jews of those
countries to leave and return to their real "homeland," Israel. He was
immediately rebuked by leading rabbis in Denmark, France and Belgium.
Other national leaders are content to speak in behalf of their own
citizens. Mr. Netanyahu is not.
The
fact is that Zionism is a dramatic departure from Judaism. It
perceives of Judaism as a nationality, and Israel as its nation-state.
In reality, Judaism is a religion of universal values. American Jews
are American by nationality and Jews by religion, just as other
Americans are Protestant, Catholic or Muslims. The same is true for
Jews in the United Kingdom. France, Switzerland, Italy and other
countries.
But the new
Nation-State law is most immediately an assault upon Israel's non-Jewish
citizens. Amman Wodehouse, leader of the Joint List Arab faction in
the Knesset, said, "Today, I will have to tell my children, along with
all the children of Palestinian Arab towns in the country, that the
state has declared that it does not want us here." Hassan Jabareen,
general director of Adalah, a Palestinian human rights organization in
Israel, said, "The law features key elements of apartheid, which is not
only immoral but also absolutely prohibited under international law...it
constitutionally enshrined the identity of Israel as the nation-state
of the Jewish people only---despite the 1.7 million Palestinian citizens
of the state, residents of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights---and
guaranteed the exclusive ethnic-religious character of Israel as
Jewish."
In the view of
critics in Israel, this law is another step toward full annexation of
the West Bank, which Israel has occupied illegally for 51 years. Roni
Pelli, of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, says that, "This
bill is not about law or justice, it is all about normalizing the
Israeli occupation and blurring the difference between Israel and the
occupied territories that are under military rule. The explicit aim of
the bill is to make things easier for Israeli authorities that harm
Palestinians, to make it more difficult for them to achieve justice."
Israelis
used to believe that their country could be both "Jewish" and
"democratic." Polling by the Israeli Democracy Institute indicates that
this is now a minority position. Larger subsets say the country must
be either Jewish first or democratic first. Those who say Israel should
be Jewish first overwhelmingly belong to the political right,
which,pushed through this legislation. But the majority of all Jews say
that "crucial national decisions" like self-determination should be
left to a Jewish majority.
Israeli
democracy has been declining for many years, according to a respected
index known as V-Dem that tracks countries across a host of metrics. In
the mid-1990s, Israel scored alongside South Korea and Jamaica. Today,
it is seen on par with African democracies such as Namibia and Senegal
and well below Tunisia, the Middle East's highest-scored democracy.
Many
Jewish voices, both in the U.S. and Israel, have sharply criticized the
new law, including the American Jewish Committee and the Union for
Reform Judaism. Rabbi Alissa Wise of Jewish Voice for Peace declared
that, "Apartheid in Israel was just made official and it's devastating.
This is a...racist and discriminatory move to punish and rob
Palestinians of their most basic rights and freedoms. And as a Jew and a
rabbi, this act runs counter to the Judaism that I love ...This bill
cements Israel as an apartheid state. Palestinians, no matter where
they live. are controlled by an Israeli government that robs them of
basic rights and freedoms."
Those
in Israel who are committed to genuine democracy are dismayed and urge
international intervention to deal with Israel's clear violation of
international law in establishing settlements in illegally occupied
territory. In an article in The Guardian (June 28, 2018), Ilana
Hammerman, a highly regarded writer and translator, and David Harel,
Vice President of the Israel Academy of Sciences, call on the world to
"intervene on behalf of the Palestinians."
They
write: "The State of Israel is facing a catastrophic situation which
could, alarmingly soon, lead to extensive bloodshed...We represent a
group of intellectuals and cultural figures central to Israeli
society...We are patriotic Israeli citizens who love our country...We
are horrified by the situation and fear deeply for our lives and the
lives of our offspring and the lives of the 13 million Jews and Arabs
who live here...Ever since 1967, not a single Israeli government has put
a stop to the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Moreover, in recent years, the officially and openly stated ideological
policy of the elected Israeli government has it that this land, from the
Mediterranean to the Jordan River, belongs in its entirety to the
Jewish people, wherever they may be."
Hammerman
and Harel argue that, "In the spirit of this ideology , the processes
involving oppression, expulsion and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians
living in the West Bank are broadening and deepening...Israeli courts
are in the process of legitimizing the destruction of entire villages
and the Knesset is passing new laws that steadily decrease the ability
of the courts to have a say at all. Others legitimize the additional
expropriation of private Palestinian land in favor of the settlements
built on them. These acts of one sided expropriation violate those
parts of international law that protect civilians of occupied
territories, and some are even in violation of Israeli law."
Fifty
one years of military rule on the West Bank has seen Israel take over
large quantities of land and has placed more than 600,000 Israeli
citizens there in hundreds of settlements. It supplies them with roads,
water and electricity and has financed their health, education and
cultural institutions. It has given these settlers the same civil and
political rights enjoyed by citizens living within its own sovereign
territory. At the same time, Israel is squeezing the living space of
Palestinian residents, who enjoy no civil or political rights.
In
calling for international intervention, Hammerman and Harel declare
that, "Since all the actions are being carried out in violation of
international law, the resulting situation is no longer just an internal
issue. The international community have taken many decisions intended
to curb these actions, but none has ever been accompanied by enforcement
mechanisms...And so a destructive, violent and exploitive reality is
becoming the norm in these areas. We, who are located in the midst of
this reality, believe the international community must help, since that
community alone is responsible for enforcing compliance with its
treaties...and with the decisions of its institutions...If peace is not
established in this part of the world very soon...there will be no
future for us and the Palestinians."
The
respected Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim, whose career has taken
him to institutions such as La Scala in Milan, and led him to create,
along with the late Edward Said, the West-East Divan Orchestra (WED),
which brings together young musicians from throughout the Middle East,
both Arab and Israeli, responded to the new Nation-State law this way:
"This racist new law makes me ashamed to be Israeli."In articles in
Haaretz and The Guardian, he characterized the law as "a very clear form
of apartheid." Israel, he laments. has rejected the equality called
for in its Declaration of Independence and "has passed a law that
replaces the principle of equality and universal values with nationalism
and racism."
Clause C
of the Nation-State bill declares, "The right to exercise national o
self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish
people." This clause acknowledges two classes of citizens, those to
whom the state belongs and those to whom it does not. Thus, the 1.7
million non-Jewish citizens, most of whom have lived in the land for
many generations longer than Jewish Israeli citizens, have no ownership
and no national home in the land of their ancestors.
If
the new Nation-State law is, as Prime Minister Netanyahu declares, a
"defining moment" for Israel, it is, sadly, defining itself as something
other than a Western-style democracy which seeks peace with its
neighbors. It is turning its back of the Jewish moral and ethical
tradition as well.
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Allan C. Brownfeld is a nationally syndicated columnist and is editor of
ISSUES, the quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism.
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