Israel: Jewish Yes, Fully Democratic?

Does being the heritage/historical homeland of the Jewish people -- a haven in times of peace and of war, a home where safety and security should be ensured where it has not been historically in those places of the world where the Jewish diaspora has lived for hundreds, in many instances thousands of year -- guarantee that the country can also present itself as fully and freely democratic? If the nation functions primarily as a Jewish homeland, yet one that absorbs people of other ethnic and religious heritage as citizens, does the primacy of a Jewish state become compromised?

"There are those who would like the democratic to prevail over the Jewish and there are those who would like the Jewish to prevail over the democratic. Both of these values are equal and both must be considered to the same degree."
"I also don't understand those who call for two states for two peoples, but at the same time oppose anchoring that in law.  They are quick to recognize a Palestinian national home, but adamantly oppose a Jewish national home."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

"People ask who needs this bill; we have managed 66 years without it. And I ask, who needs the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, we managed 45 years without it. We need both. Israel is a Jewish democratic state. There are those who want democracy to take precedence over Judaism, and those who want Judaism to take precedence over democracy. In the law that I am bringing, both principles are equal and must be given equal consideration."

Jim Hollander/Reuters

Sunday, after heated discussions, denunciations, stalling and determination to proceed, the Israeli cabinet voted to amend the country's Basic Law to refer to the state as "the national homeland of the Jewish people." The Basic Law makes reference to Israel as "Jewish and democratic". It was enacted at the time of the nation's founding in 1948. And it speaks to the determination of Jewish leaders, reflecting Jewish philosophical thought that the country could and should reflect both values. The sum total of Israel's existence.

The bill to make the changes official certainly has its critics, chief among them Tzipi Livni and others who feel, like her, that it codifies discrimination against those Israeli citizens who are Arabs. For one thing, Arabic once listed under the law as an official language, reflecting the 20% Arab demographic of Israel, will no longer have official status. As a Jewish State, there should be one official language and that would be Hebrew, the language of Israel the nation. There are no prohibitions against the use of any other languages, needless to say.

Without official language status, however, the government and nor any of its agencies need not publish official documentation in any language but Hebrew, other than as a courtesy if and when the need appears to arise. Three pieces of legislation drafted by the Israeli Cabinet, but amended before finalization and the vote to reflect some of the objections lodged against their being made into law, were ultimately approved 15 for, 6 against, with the prime minister supporting the initiative. Having done so the shift, he declared would not undermine democratic traditions so valued by Israel.

Arabic under a version of the bill would be given "special status". The reaffirmation of national self-determination delegated as a sole right to Israel's Jewish citizens. Which brings to mind the refusals of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. That simple fact of Israel's purpose and presence is undeniable. Undeniable also is that should the Palestinian Authority's insistence on 'right of return' in negotiating with Israel toward a peace arrangement ever be agreed upon it would spell the death knell of a Jewish state.

Simply put, the Arab demographic would conspire to overwhelm the Jewish presence. Disagreement in the cabinet was audibly frenetic. Finance Minister Yair Lapid characterized the proposed change as a "bad law, badly worded". Prime Minister Netanyahu was accused of political ideology, courting votes among his party's nationalistic element. Isaac Herzog, head of Israel's Labor Party called the bill an unnecessary, reactionary provocation. Israelis are nothing if not in perpetual tenterhooks over causing 'provocation' engendering an Arab backlash.

"Only a prime minister lacking in self-confidence, without a vision and a plan, needs laws that deal with the obvious that will not improve any Israeli citizens' lives."

Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people where there are equal rights for every citizen. "But there are national rights only for the Jewish people; a flag, anthem, the right of every Jew to immigrate to Israel, and other national symbols. I brought the principles of the law in which I believe, the principles that appear in the Independence Scroll," Mr. Netanyahu stated.

 

The bill's introduction in the wake of the violent attacks by Palestinians against Israeli citizens can only be a reaction against the instability, social and political, heralded by Palestinian defiance of authority by Israeli security in relation to their rioting on the Temple Mount which they refer to as the Noble Sanctuary, at the sight of Jewish visitors to their own most sacred site in Judaism, which offends the Muslim worshippers at their third-most-sacred site in Islam.

 

Sharing and equality reflects the hallmark of Jewish and thus Israeli social and political conventions, values held as the highest mark of moral justice and equality under one flag. Rejection and rioting is the response by their Muslim counterparts reeling at the outrage of a Jewish presence within a Jewish nation at a Jewish shrine. Israeli Jews are prepared to share, Israeli Palestinians are not, and they will make every effort to ensure that their distrust and paranoia is known to Israeli authorities.

Who have, as a result, needing to ensure order and security, little option but to restrain and constrain their Jewish citizens from visiting the Temple Mount other than mutely, non-threateningly, since threats are seen in movements that might be construed as prayerful. The fewer the number of Jews present on the Mount to outrage the unrestrained Palestinians, the less the opportunity for outraged stone-throwing and rioting to occur. Equality is a concept unknown and unwanted to the Arab mind.

One cherished by Israeli parliamentarians who anguish among themselves over the implied or appearance of disenfranchising citizens of Israel reflective of their ethnicity, tribal identity, religion or ideology. Which makes it ever so unsurprising that Israel is infiltrated by supporters of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and ISIS as well, those supporters leaving graffiti messages of malicious intent on memorials to Druze who have fought as Israeli citizens alongside their Jewish counterparts, defending their country.