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The new Israeli law changes almost nothing. As before, the accusations of apartheid & # 39; are out of place
C Considering the tremendous turmoil that he created in Israel and abroad, you would have thought that the law pbaded this week by the Israeli Knesset fundamentally changed the nature of the state. . But although some of the country's critics as well as Israelis and Jews who oppose the decision to enact a "nation-state" law act as if it has created a change that would upset the Earth this is not the case
. practically nothing about life in Israel because Israel was, from birth, a Jewish state. Indeed, when David Ben Gurion, the country's first prime minister, read the country's declaration of independence in Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948, he declared that the people gathered to ratify the document are hereby declaring the creation of a Jewish state in the country. Although his critics described the pbading of the new law as provocative or, at best, pointless, it is an enunciation of the basic principles on which Israel was founded. As Israel is a country without a written constitution, the adoption of "basic laws" like this serves as a framework for the ongoing construction of such a document. The law of the Jewish state is therefore simply a declaration of national intent rather than legislation that claims to alter the existing legal structure of the Israeli government.
The problem is that, 70 years after its founding, the fundamental principles that led to the creation of Israel are still controversial among those who oppose its existence. Even some Israelis and Jews in the Diaspora opposed the adoption of the law, not because they disagreed, but because they fear that the articulation of these principles further alienates the Palestinians, the Arab minority in Israel, the international community and even the young Jews of the United States who are reluctant to support Israel.
These critics are probably right to say that the law will put a little more wind in the sails of the anti-Zionists who continue to spread the scandal that Israel is a "" But the problem with this argument is that the charges laid Against Israel as a racist state were already aired before this bill was signed, and those who have a problem with an overtly Jewish state do not need this law to be against it. " existence of Israel
It does not matter whether the law should be pbaded now or, as it is, its enactment had more to do with the internal politics of the center-right government coalition. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusations of racism or apartheid are still false, unlike all other countries in the region, Israel remains a democracy in which all its citizens have equal rights before the law. t voting rights and representation in the country's parliament, the Knesset. Many Arabs and minorities serve in government, particularly in judicial and diplomatic positions.
The idea of a country that is the heritage of an ethno-religious community strikes some of the West as being inherently racist. But Israel is not the only one to see in itself a nation whose primary purpose is to enable a people to express its national identity.
The founding document of the country and other basic laws guarantee equal rights for all. was created to express the Jews' right to self-determination in their former homeland. In this sense, Jews have collective rights in Israel while non-Jewish minorities have mostly only individual rights.
As in other countries where large national minority communities exist, this creates difficulties – in this case, the country that is not Jewish. Like all other countries, including democracies, Israel is not perfect. But the tension that arises from this situation has been exacerbated by, more than anything else, the fact that their Arab and Muslim neighbors seek to destroy Israel since the day of its birth. In seven decades, Israel has become an impoverished Third World state struggling to accommodate Holocaust survivors and Jews who have been forced to flee their homes in the Arab world. Israel is now a regional superpower with the world's first "start-up nation" economy. Nevertheless, he has been at war every day of his existence.
The idea of a country that is not only the state of its citizens but the heritage of an ethno-religious community strikes some racists in the West. But Israel is not the only one to see in itself a nation whose primary purpose is to enable a people to express its national identity.
The constitutions of many other countries clearly show that they exist as vehicles of a national way. Spain is an example. Spanish nationality takes precedence over that of ethnic minorities such as Basques or Catalans. The same is true for the Baltic States, which all have important Russian minorities who must accept that the Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian language and culture are the keystones of national identity. Israel is no more a state of apartheid than any of these countries.
The only truly unique thing about Israel's insistence that it is a Jewish state is that it is the only one on a planet with dozens states that are clearly Muslim, Christian or badociated with another faith. Indeed, according to the Pew Research Center in October 2017, 27 nations designate Islam as their official religion, while 13 (including nine in Europe) do the same for Christianity. 40 other nations accord privileged or privileged status to a particular religion
There is nothing intrinsically repugnant to apartheid, or a law that establishes national symbols: a Flag with a blue Star of David and a national anthem, "Hatikva", which speaks of the "hope" of the Jews to "live freely" in "the land of Zion and Jerusalem", 2,000 years old. It is also not apartheid to use the Hebrew calendar or state the interest of the nation to ensure the safety of Jews in the world.
Or at least there is nothing offensive unless you think that Jews deserve to be denied basic rights of establishment, sovereignty and self-defense in their lives. own country that nobody would think to refuse to anyone else. This is why such an anti-Zionist bias is indistinguishable from anti-Semitism.
With respect to the other details of the law that critics have addressed, here again, further examination reveals nothing controversial. Declaring that the national language of Israel is Hebrew while recognizing the special status of Arabic is not more discriminatory than the priority given to Spanish throughout Spain.
The recognition of the right to Jewish colonization is not a barrier to peace either. always been to defend the right of Jews to resettle their former homeland, to allow the "gathering of exiles" mentioned in the Declaration of Independence of Israel. This right was also included in the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, in which Britain's obligation to encourage a "close settlement" of the country by Jews was clearly specified.
The desire of so many to deny Israel the right to express its Jewish identity is exactly why a majority of the Knesset has deemed it necessary to remind the world that their country is and will always be the nation-state of the Jewish people .
The state of Israel has in fact already treated all of these elements as custom and law before the recent bill was pbaded. But they remain points of contention because the country's enemies – including a BDS movement (boycott, divestment, sanction) dedicated to its destruction – continue to oppose the existence of a state. Jewish. This opposition to its existence was the point of "return marches" organized by Hamas in Gaza last spring.
Israel could very well have heard without Jewish law and would remain just as Jewish as it is now. Despite the internal political quarrels of Netanyahu's coalition, the reason so many Israelis believed that such a law was needed has more to do with the refusal of Palestinians and so many of their foreign facilitators to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state, no matter how
The new law does not help to improve the image of Israel among Americans and others who have no sympathy for the expressions of nationalism, as closely related as they may be to a nation that is the only democracy in the Middle East or the rights of a small people who has suffered from exile and persecution for two millennia. But the desire of so many people to deny Israel the right to express its Jewish identity is exactly the reason why a majority of the Knesset has deemed it necessary to remind the world that their country is and will always remain the same. Nation-state of the Jewish people. It's a right that other democracies and honest people should support everywhere.
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