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dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/26/jewish-nation-state-law-why-israel-was-never-a-democracy/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/26/jewish-nation-state-law-why-israel-was-never-a-democracy/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Jewish Nation-State Law: Why Israel Was
Never a Democracy</h1>
<span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/cet6s/"
rel="nofollow">Ramzy Baroud</a> - July 26, 2018</span></div>
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<p>The head of the Arab Joint List Alliance at the Israeli
Knesset (Parliament), Ayman Odeh, described the passing
of the racist Jewish Nation-state Law as “the death of
our democracy.”</p>
<p>Did Odeh truly believe that, prior to this law, he had
lived in a true democracy? 70 years of Israeli Jewish
supremacy, genocide, ethnic cleansing, wars, sieges,
mass incarceration, numerous discriminatory laws, all
aimed at the very destruction of the Palestinian people
should have given enough clues that Israel was never a
democracy, to begin with.</p>
<p>The Jewish Nation-state Law is merely the icing on the
cake. It simply gave those who argued, all along, that
Israel’s attempt at combining democracy with ethnic
supremacy was racism masquerading as democracy, the
munition they needed to further illustrate the point.</p>
<p>There is no escaping the moral imperative now. Those
who insist on supporting Israel must know that they are
supporting an unabashed Apartheid regime.</p>
<p>The new law, which was passed after some wrangling on
January 19, has divorced Israel from any claim, however
untrue, to being a democratic state.</p>
<p>In fact, the law does not mention the word ‘democracy’
in its wording, not even once. Reference to the Jewish
identity of the state, however are ample and dominant,
with the clear exclusion of the Palestinian people from
their rights in their historic homeland:</p>
<p>– “The state of Israel is the nation-state of the
Jewish people …</p>
<p>– “The actualization of the right of national
self-determination in the state of Israel is unique to
the Jewish people.</p>
<p>– “The state will labor to ensure the safety of sons of
the Jewish people …</p>
<p>– “The state will act to preserve the cultural,
historical and religious legacy of the Jewish people
among the Jewish diaspora,” and so on.</p>
<p>But most dangerous of all is the stipulation that “the
state views Jewish settlement as a national value and
will labor to encourage and promote its establishment
and development.”</p>
<p>True, illegal Jewish settlements already dot the
Palestinian land in the West Bank and Jerusalem; and a
de facto segregation already exists in Israel itself. In
fact, segregation is so deep and entrenched, even
maternity wards in Israeli hospitals separate between
mothers, based on their race.</p>
<p>The above stipulation, however, will further accelerate
segregation and cement Apartheid, making the harm not
merely intellectual and political, but physical as well.</p>
<p>The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel,
Adalah, has documented in its ‘Discriminatory Laws
Database’ a list of over 65 Israeli laws that
“discriminate directly or indirectly against Palestinian
citizens in Israel and/or Palestinian residents of the
Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) on the basis of
their national belonging.”</p>
<p>According to Adalah, “These laws limit the rights of
Palestinians in all areas of life, from citizenship
rights to the right to political participation, land and
housing rights, education rights, cultural and language
rights, religious rights, and due process rights during
detention.”</p>
<p>While it would be accurate to argue that the Jewish
Nations-state bill is the officiation of Apartheid in
Israel, this realization should not dismiss the previous
reality upon which Israel was founded 70 years ago.</p>
<p>Apartheid is not a single law, but a slow, agonizing
build-up of an intricate legal regime that is motivated
by the belief that one racial group is superior to all
others.</p>
<p>Not only does the new law elevate Israel’s Jewish
identity and erase any commitment to democracy, it also
downgrades the status of all others. Palestinian Arabs,
the natives of the land of historic Palestine upon which
Israel was established, did not feature prominently in
the new law at all. There was a mere stipulation made to
the Arabic language, but only to downgrade it from being
an official language, to a ‘special one.’</p>
<p>Israel’s decision to refrain from formulating a written
constitution when it was founded in 1948 was not a
haphazard one. Since then, it has been following a
predicable model where it would alter reality on the
ground to the advantage of Jews at the expense of
Palestinian Arabs.</p>
<p>Instead of a constitution, Israel resorted to what it
termed ‘Basic Laws’, which allowed for the constant
formulation of new laws guided by the ‘Jewish State’s’
commitment to racial supremacy than to democracy,
international law, human rights or any other ethnical
value.</p>
<p>The Jewish Nation-state Law is itself a ‘Basic Law.’
And with that law, Israel has dropped the meaningless
claim to being both Jewish and democratic. This
impossible task was often left to the Supreme Court
which tried, but failed, to strike any convincing
balance.</p>
<p>This new reality should, once and for all, end the
protracted debate on the supposed uniqueness of Israel’s
political system.</p>
<p>And since Israel has chosen racial supremacy over any
claim, however faint, to real democracy, western
countries that have often shielded Israel must also make
a choice on whether they wish to support an Apartheid
regime or fight against it.</p>
<p>The initial statement by EU foreign affairs chief,
Federica Mogherini was lackluster and feeble. “We are
concerned, we have expressed this concern and we will
continue to engage with Israeli authorities in this
context,” she said, while renewing her commitment to the
‘two-state solution.’</p>
<p>This is hardly the proper statement in response to a
country that had just announced its membership in the
Apartheid club.</p>
<p>The EU must end its wishy-washy political discourse and
disengage from Apartheid Israel, or it has to accept the
moral, ethical and legal consequences of being an
accomplice in Israeli crimes against Palestinians.</p>
<p>Israel has made its choice and it is, unmistakably, the
wrong one. The rest of the world must now make its
choice as well, hopefully the right one: standing on the
right side of history – against Israeli Jewish Apartheid
and for Palestinian rights.</p>
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<p> <em><strong>Dr. Ramzy Baroud</strong> has been writing
about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an
internationally-syndicated columnist, a media
consultant, an author of several books and the founder
of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father
Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto Press,
London). His website is: ramzybaroud.net</em> </p>
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