1948 \u2013 The Declaration of Independence establishes the democratic and Jewish identity of the State of Israel.<\/p>\n
2018 \u2013 The Nation State Law establishes the Jewish identity of Israel while disregarding the state\u2019s democratic character.<\/p>\n
I was born in the village of Isfiya on Mount Carmel, seven years after Israeli independence was declared, and I became a proud Israeli. I was raised by parents who were born in Eretz Israel-Palestine before the founding of the state. I volunteered for the Paratroopers Brigade and served in the Israel Defense Forces for 26 years, in the full range of command roles. I was proud to be discharged with the rank of brigadier general.<\/p>\n
Over the years, I trained and taught generations of combat soldiers and commanders to love the land and the state \u2013 a Jewish and democratic state. Twenty years after I left the army, a new law came into the world, the Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People. The Law was a slap in the face for me and my fellow Druze, and led me, for the first time, at the age of 65, to doubt the full and absolute Israeliness that until then had shaped my life.<\/p>\n
The Nation State Law redefined Israel\u2019s identity. Instead of affirming the state\u2019s identity and character as both Jewish and democratic, as defined in the Declaration of Independence, it defined Israel\u2019s character as Jewish, while blatantly disregarding its democratic-egalitarian character. When we compare the Nation State Law to the Declaration of Independence, we clearly see the dangers embodied in this law, both in terms of how Israel\u2019s identity and character are defined, and in terms of the formal existence of a functioning democratic regime.<\/p>\n
In my estimation, the Nation State Law represents the legislature\u2019s intention to do away with the egalitarian-democratic framework in which Israel\u2019s egalitarian-constitutional approach to its non-Jewish minority had been embedded. Recent years have, unfortunately, witnessed a growing trend toward anti-democratic legislation, and the Nation State Law is one of its major manifestations. Laws and legislative initiatives at various stages of the process clearly aim to shrink the democratic space; these initiatives include legislation detrimental to minorities, blows to human rights organizations, restrictions on the Supreme Court\u2019s powers, and attempts to undermine freedom of speech and artistic freedom. The current subversion of the value of equality as reflected in the Nation State Law is trampling underfoot the delicate equilibrium between \u201cJudaism\u201d and \u201cdemocracy\u201d in Israel\u2019s defined identity.<\/p>\n
The complexity of a Jewish-democratic state is represented and defined in the Declaration of Independence. The most meaningful \u201cJewish\u201d characteristic of the state is expressed in the affirmation that \u201cThe State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles.\u201d The automatic right to citizenship for Jews is a basic tenet of Zionism, and although its formal legal meaning (the Law of Return) refers to the privileging of Jews who are not Israeli citizens, it is also an obviously non-egalitarian attribute of the state.<\/p>\n
But alongside this non-egalitarian Jewish characteristic, the same clause of the declaration affirms the principle of equality, that is, the civil-secular democratic foundation of the state. According to this principle, Israel \u201cwill ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fact that the principle of equality is affirmed in the same context as the Jewish-Zionist principle of Jewish immigration, and as an inseparable part of Israeli citizenship, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or nationality \u2013 these are the elements that create integration and balance between a state that privileges Diaspora Jews and a state that provides an egalitarian-democratic framework for all its citizens.<\/p>\n
In the face of this masterpiece of integration and balance that is the Declaration of Independence \u2013 balance between the Jewish and the universal, and between the religious-national and the secular-civil \u2013 a nationalist law has now burst rudely forth, one that purports to redefine the State of Israel\u2019s identity while completely disregarding the democratic principles of equality and minority rights. This is a law that represents an extremist nationalist outlook leaving no room for equitable coexistence with those of other nationalities: this is a state of the Jewish people and of no one else.<\/p>\n
Under a democratic regime, the link between equality and citizenship cannot be severed. If there is no equality among all citizens, there is no democracy. There is no partial equality, no greater equality or lesser equality \u2013 not in mathematics and not in civics. One cannot say that all citizens are equal but that some citizens are more (or less) equal than others. That exists only in George Orwell\u2019s Animal Farm<\/em>, and we don\u2019t want to go there. We are fighting not to go there.<\/p>\n The recognition of equality dictates most of the principles that undergird a democratic regime. Even the basic tenets of rule of the people (the literal meaning of \u201cdemocracy\u201d) and majority rule rest on the idea that we are all equal \u2013 since otherwise it would be necessary to take opinions into account and not just tally up votes. Other democratic principles are also rooted in the recognition of equality, including pluralism, tolerance, and the safeguarding of minority, human, and civil rights. All these things are closely tied to the recognition of the basic principle of equality.<\/p>\n Thus, when we, members of the Druze community, undertook to oppose the Nation State Law, we did so in order to defend Israeli democracy and the ideal of equality for all, since equality cannot be just for \u201csome,\u201d or merely partial. And when we fight for the granting of constitutional validity to the Declaration of Independence, we are fighting for the sole possible means of balancing equality and nationalism, and for the sole practical solution to the difficulty of combining \u201cJewish and democratic\u201d in Israel\u2019s identity definition.<\/p>\n We feel the full force of the insult and the blow struck by the Nation State Law, which undercuts our connection, that of the Druze, to the State of Israel. We have therefore taken it upon ourselves to lead the charge, as Israel is our home and our country, and we dedicate our lives to its protection. We are not guests, nor will we be mercenaries; we are defending our country and our homeland just as every Israeli is supposed to do.<\/p>\n But the demand to annul the Nation State Law and to give constitutional validity to the Declaration of Independence is not a struggle for Druze rights. It should be the struggle of all who believe in democracy and in equality. The demand to annul the Nation State Law in its current form is one that transcends boundaries \u2013 between right and left, between religious and secular, between Jews, Druze, Muslims, and Christians. This demand stops only at the threshold of the racism that it combats. Thus, we are not called upon to complete the task, but neither are we free to desist from it. I call upon every citizen of conscience who believes in egalitarian democracy to join the camp of those who demand the Nation State Law\u2019s annulment and the conferral of constitutional validity on the Declaration of Independence. Together we will seek to restore the true Israeliness of all of us, and we will work together to ensure the future of a democratic, egalitarian, and just Israel. That is the secret of the state\u2019s resilience and the pride of all its citizens.<\/p>\n