The Guardian view on Israel: the narrowing of a nation

The Guardian view on Israel: the narrowing of a nation

With a bill to define the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people, a democracy stands on the brink of downgrading itself

The Guardian, Friday 28 November 2014 19.10 GMT

 ‘Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who voted for the bill, unabashedly admits that, should it become law – and it still faces parliamentary obstacles – only Jews would be granted national rights.’ Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters

Israel is justly proud of its declaration of independence. That document, hastily drafted in 1948, insisted that the new country would promise “complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex”. That text, and that central pledge, formed the foundation on which Israel set out its ambition to be a democracy – even, to use a phrase cherished by the country’s advocates, the only democracy in the Middle East.

Now, though, there comes a threat to that position and to the declaration itself. Last weekend, in a reportedly stormy meeting, the cabinet approved a bill that would enshrine Israel’s status as the nation-state of the Jewish people. That definition would become part of Israel’s basic laws, as integral to its unwritten constitution as the declaration.

To the naked eye, this might seem a mere statement of the obvious: after all, the overwhelming majority of Israelis are Jews, the Star of David sits at the heart of the national flag. But as no less a figure than Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, along with the attorney-general and a host of other Israeli luminaries, have noticed, the ramifications are alarming. While the declaration of independence was careful to identify Israel as both Jewish and democratic – with the two qualities given equal weight – the new law would give primacy to Israel’s Jewishness over its democracy. One would be deemed more important than the other.

The first implication of this is the most alarming. It would mean that “national rights” would be extended to Jews alone. Arab citizens of Israel, who make up at least 20% of the population, would be granted as civil rights individuals, but denied “national rights” as a people. This is not a charge levelled by critics. Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who voted for the bill, unabashedly admits that, should it become law – and it still faces parliamentary obstacles – only Jews would be granted national rights. An immediate manifestation of the change could be the downgrading of Arabic from its current status as an official language of Israel.

For nearly half a century, Israel’s defenders have insisted that – whatever the world’s misgivings about the 47-year occupation of lands gained in the 1967 war — the country itself, Israel-proper, is a full-blooded democracy, with Palestinian citizens of the country enjoying full equality. This would render that claim false. The basic laws would enshrine inequality, ensuring Jews had fuller rights than Arabs.

Some Israeli analysts have put all this down to the usual jostle of domestic politics, with Mr Netanyahu, always manoeuvring to retain his grip on the top job, seeking to leave no space for coalition rivals on his right. Perhaps there is truth in that. But that hardly excuses what would be a darkly reactionary move. It would insult Palestinian Israelis, long the victims of discrimination, telling them what the declaration of independence never did: that they are lesser citizens. And it would damage yet further Israel’s international reputation. Whatever petty advantage it might bring him, Mr Netanyahu ought to kill this bill before it’s too late.