UNA NACION, UNA RELIGION, UN PUEBLO, UNA TORAH

The Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People would not subordinate or diminish democracy or minority rights. In accordance with our jurisprudence and under authority of existing basic laws, all citizens would continue to be entitled to equal treatment under law with full civil rights, but these are political and, in part, social in nature – not collective. There are 21 Arab states, with another one possibly on the way. Israel is the one and only state championing the collective rights of the Jewish People. It is here alone, in accordance with clear international law, that we have exercised our right to self-determination. This is precisely as envisioned in the Balfour declaration, by the San Remo Resolution and the League of Nations Mandate (both in 1922), by the Anglo-American Treaty of 1925, by the recommendation of the UN General Assembly in 1947, by the Israeli Declaration of Independence of 1948, and now by the proposed basic law. According to every international convention and standard, no Arab or Palestinian citizen of Israel is being or will be discriminated against by the fact that the Jewish state is the nation state of the Jewish People, and promotes collective Jewish interests and culture while treating all citizens as equal before the law. Of course, one who does not identify with the Jewish People feels less connected. But this is inevitable in every nation state where some citizens do not belong to the predominant, favored ethnic group. As a citizen in a democratic nation state, the minority member receives equal political and social rights. But as a non-member of the nation he does not bask in the same feeling of fellowship and belonging that accompanies the self-determination of the overwhelming majority. Those of us who grew up in the US, which is not a nation state, are accustomed to the state being neutral in ethnic and religious matters. But the US is not an instance of a nation which formed a state: it is rather a state that engendered a national civic identity. This is more the exception than the rule. A majority of European countries are nation states, each, in its own way, promoting the collective interests of the predominant national groups while affording equal political rights to all citizens. Israeli Arabs or Palestinians are free to develop their culture. They are educated in their own language in a system they themselves fashion. This is not always the case in other nation states. But there is no Law of Return for Arabs, because this is a Jewish state established as a home for those members of the Jewish nation who want to join, and for those who must. As the sovereign nation state of the Jewish People, it is legitimate and proper that Israel promote Jewish culture, Jewish learning, Jewish history and a vibrant Jewish future here and to the extent possible, in the Diaspora. It is legitimate and proper that Israel devote resources to the ingathering of our brethren, that we commemorate Yom Hashoa and Yom Hazikaron, that we celebrate Hanukkah and Yom Ha’atzmaut. Our status as the nation state of the Jewish People must not remain unprotected by the new constitution under which we now live. We need to correct the current legal imbalance in the basic laws so that the courts can protect rather than erode Israel’s Jewish character as conceived by our founders and as implemented by the courts before the surprise appearance of the new constitution. Israel was established as a Jewish state, and historical justice requires that we protect and anchor this status in our basic laws. The prime minister’s commitment to pass the Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People deserves the support of all us.