Israel’s Knesset has passed a new Basic Law – a series of laws that substitute for Israel’s non-existent constitution – called the Jewish Nation-State Law. You can read the full text of the law here.
Israel has always struggled to defend its contradictory claim of being a Jewish and a democratic state, simultaneously. Critics, which most recently includes members of Israel’s Supreme Court, have long pointed out that establishing a state only for Jews undermines its claims to democracy, which requires equality for everyone, Jews and non-Jews alike.
Many Israeli legislators have worried about the court’s bizarre tendency to acknowledge this obvious contradiction and to rule accordingly, issuing decisions which typically favor democracy above Zionist racial profiling.
Horrors!
But, don’t worry. Israel’s political Zionists have a plan. Enter the new
Jewish Nation-State Law. One of the law’s staunchest supporters is the current Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked who openly laments the court’s tendency, when forced to pick between Jewishness or democracy, to defend the democratic principle of equality before the law.
Now the Jewish Nation-State Law will force even the highest court in the land to change its evil ways and acknowledge that, in the land of Israel, Jewish ethnicity rules supreme. As Justice Minister Shaked declared in a Knesset debate last February
“There are places where the character of the State of Israel as a Jewish state must be maintained and this sometimes comes at the expense of equality.” (emphasis mine)
Speaking in Jerusalem at the Israeli Congress on Judaism and Democracy the Justice Minister reaffirmed her position, insisting that Israel
“is a Jewish state and not a state for all of its nationalities…the Supreme Court should stop upholding the former at the expenses of Israel’s religious values…We need to protect the Jewish character of the state even if that means sacrificing human rights.” (emphasis mine)
Opposition leaders, some of whom are also Arab legislators, voiced their opposition to the law (here, here and here). But they lost by a 62 – 55 vote. This new “constitutional amendment” has thrown down the gauntlet on the world stage. The message is clear:
Behold, here we stand! Israel. A racist, apartheid, Zionist nation-state, and we are proud of ourselves.
What will the world’s civilized nation-states do now?
