You know Israel is the Jewish state, but have you ever wondered what, exactly, that means?
When the Israeli prime minister demands that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, or when the government debates requiring new citizens to pledge allegiance to Israel as a Jewish democratic state, a wide chorus – including lots of Israelis – raises its voice in protest. Why should it come as a surprise to anyone that Israel is a Jewish state and that it expects to be recognized as such?
For starters, some 20% of Israel’s 7.5 million citizens aren’t even Jewish – most of the non-Jews are Muslim Arabs, though there are many Christians and others too. While most of these people accept Israel’s self-definition as a Jewish state, they focus particular attention on the parts of the country’s Declaration of Independence that relate to their status and rights. Among other things, the declaration proclaims that Israel:
- Will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants
- Will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex
- Will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture
Is it possible to be both Jewish and democratic? Writing in the Wall Street Journal, former US Under Secretary of Defense Doug Feith points to examples around the world to conclude that the answer is a resounding “yes.” France, Switzerland, Germany, Britain, Japan and others all have laws aimed at preserving their status as national homelands, and all of them are robust democracies that guarantee the rights of citizens who don’t share the prevailing national heritage. It’s possible, Feith writes, to maintain “majority collective rights to a national home and the individual rights of all citizens.”
This isn’t a new debate. In fact, it predates the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Back in 1896, when the founder of Modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, published his manifesto The Jewish State (check it out here), he envisioned a Jewish state that would be a homeland for a specific people, but also a democracy that would guarantee the rights and equality of all its citizens.
That may sound prescient. Indeed, maybe it was. But it helps to know that Herzl based his vision for the future Jewish state on the democracies he knew best: those found in Central and Western Europe.
