New Nation-State Law in Israel Is ‘Severe’

Tens of thousands participate in a Druze-led protest in Tel Aviv against the Jewish nation-state law, on August 4, 2018. Photo credit: Adam Rasgon/ Times of Israel staff.

By Genie Silver
Middle East Committee

On July 19, 2018, the Israel Knesset passed a Basic Law Nation-State bill that codifies Apartheid in Israel. Israel does not have a constitution; instead they have Basic Laws passed by the Knesset that are very difficult to overturn. The Nation-State Basic Law affirms that Israel is the nation state of the Jewish People. It states that only Jewish citizens have the right to self-determination. The law denies the Right of Return to anyone who is not Jewish. The law reaffirms that East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, which have been illegally occupied and annexed by Israel, are part of Israel. Article 7 of the Nation-Sate Law endorses “Judaization” or promotion of Jewish-only settlements.

Nadia Ben-Youssef writes in Palestine Square, “This law has severe consequences for Palestinians and other non-Jewish citizens or residents currently under Israeli control. With Judaization as a national value, the Israeli government could justify the forcible transfer of populations, and with discrimination enshrined, non-Jewish people have limited ways of challenging unequal access to land, housing or state resources.”

The new law also demotes Arabic from an official language in Israel to a language holding “special” status. The law never mentions Palestinians, Arabs, Palestinian history, and Palestine. There is also no mention of equality, human rights, or borders. Since its 1948 Declaration of Independence, Israel has purposely avoided demarcating borders. That way Israeli lawmakers can continually change and determine its borders, changing them at will, through military aggression and subsequent illegal annexation of more and more land owned by Palestinians. (Nadia Ben-Youssef, Jewish Nation State Law Sets Legal Parameters for Complete Takeover of Historic Palestine, Palestine Square, July 28, 2018).

On August 4th, over 50,000 people attended a Druze-led public protest against the law held in Rabin Square, Tel Aviv.

On August 7, Adalah, the Legal Center for Minority Rights in Israel, filed a petition to Israel’s High Court of Justice against this new Nation-State Law. Adalah filed the petition on behalf of the lawmakers of the Joint List of the Knesset, the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee and the committee of Arab council heads and mayors, and other groups and organizations. The petition calls the new Basic Law “racist, massively harmful to fundamental human rights and contravenes international human rights norms, especially those forbidding laws that constitute a racist constitution.”

Two other petitions against the new law have also been filed. Druze leaders, including three members of the Knesset, were the first to demand that the High Court strike down the Nation-State Law (Druze citizens of Israel are required to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, IDF). The petition said the “nation-state law is spitting in our faces.” The Meretz Party also petitioned the High Court against the law, stating that the new law violated a 1992 Basic Law that guarantees “human dignity” for all citizens of Israel.

There are approximately 1.7 million Arabs—21% of Israel’s population—who live within the Green Line and will be adversely affected by the new law. The Green Line is the pre-1967 demarcation line agreed upon by Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon in the 1949 armistice agreement after the 1948 Israel-Arab War. (See Tamar Pileggi, "Israeli Arab Leaders Petition High Court against 'Racist' Nation-State Law", Times of Israel, August 7, 2018).

The US government provides $3.8 billion a year in military aid to Israel. WILPF members: Please call or email your Senators and Congresspersons to tell them that you are very alarmed at Israel’s new Nation State Basic Law because it codifies Israel’s apartheid policy and repression of Palestinians. Ask your federal lawmakers to cut military funding to Israel. Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and a switchboard operator will connect you directly with the office you request. Find your Senator’s email here and find your House representative’s contact information here.
 
Contact: Genie Silver, Rhsilver@comcast.net