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