Should Israel Be a Jewish State?

“Israel was never intended to be a theocracy… Twenty percent of its citizens are not Jewish, but rather Muslim, Christian and Druze. And this minority is growing. Furthermore, most of Israel’s citizens who do claim Jewish ancestry are in fact secular, nonpracticing Jews. About 30 per cent of its million-plus Russian immigrants are not even recognized as Jewish by the Orthodox rabbinical courts. A Jewish nation-state law would discriminate against these non-Jewish citizens – but it could also provide the quasi-judicial pretext for denying Palestinians citizenship if the ultraright get their way and Israel someday annexes the occupied territories…

Over more than six decades Israelis have created a distinct national culture, largely based on their language – always a key ingredient to any national identity. And this cultural identity is wholly separate from mere religiosity. This definition of Israeli identity – one based on the Hebrew language and culture rather than religion – is a very good thing for the prospects of peace… His [Netanyahu’s] insistence on a ‘Jewish state’ seems to be only a prescription for endless conflict with his ‘Muslim’ neighbors – and perhaps today a tactic to postpone further negotiations on the creation of a Palestinian state. The notion of a Jewish state is ultimately political poison for the Jewish Diaspora, and specifically for American Jews… talking about a ‘Jewish state’ destroys a useful and wise ambiguity. Instead, Israelis need to celebrate their ‘Israeli’ national identity.”

“Over time, nations have become more ethnically and religiously diverse; populations have become more urban and educated; and economies have become more commercial. In response to these social and economic changes, many nations have left behind the notion of a favored state religion. It is time for Israel to do the same. It must be a fully secular state.

What was necessary for Israel after the Holocaust is no longer necessary and has even become counterproductive. As long as being Jewish holds such a preeminent place in Israel, then Muslim and Christian Arabs will always be second-class citizens, vulnerable to discrimination in housing, employment, education and other areas. Nor can Ethiopian citizens be truly equal so long as their Jewishness and religious heritage are called into question by powerful religious authorities…

Gaza and the West Bank may be separated from each other, but they are not separated from Israel. Given this reality, Gaza and the West Bank must inevitably become part of Israel; there can be no two-state solution. And Israel must leave behind its official Jewish identity to acknowledge its multiethnic, multireligious character by providing equal treatment for all… If Gaza and the West Bank were truly part of Israel, and Israel were truly a multiethnic, secular society, there would be progress toward peace.”

“I question the claim that the way for Jews to have security and to feel secure is through an exclusivist [Jewish] state that requires so much violence against the Palestinians. And it required immense violence to create it… And it requires immense violence to maintain it… one has to examine what are the dynamics, what are the structures, what are the realities that perpetuate conflict and bloodshed and hostility, and I would argue, and I do argue, that it is the effort to create and maintain an exclusivist state at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian population…

“Even if Netanyahu’s demand was genuine [Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state]… it should be opposed – not just by the Palestinians but also by Israelis. Because a ‘Jewish’ state – as opposed to a state whose culture is Jewish or is ‘a national homeland’ for Jews – will always be a racist, discriminatory state… Jewish identity cannot and does not wish to be inclusive… A state that sees itself as ‘a Jewish State’ is inherently an exclusive state, because a person cannot become Palestinian-Jewish or Muslim-Jewish. Almost 25 percent of Israeli citizens are not Jews… If Israel is a Jewish State, that means that every fourth person cannot – ever – assign themselves or be assigned the state’s core identity. He or she will probably be discriminated against both formally and in practice, but more importantly, this person will be deprived of the symbolic meaning of citizenship in the nation-state model… There is no such thing as ‘a Jewish and democratic’ state; there never was and there never will be, unless you want to redefine what citizenship in a modern-day democracy means. But there could be an Israeli and democratic state… Israel can be a state whose culture is Jewish or the national home for Jews, but it cannot and should not be a state just for Jews.”

“At least one in five Israelis – 20 per cent of the population… is ethnically Arab… and recognising Israel as a ‘Jewish State’ as such makes one-fifth of the population of Israel automatically strangers in their own native land and opens the door to legally reducing them, most undemocratically, to second-class citizens (or perhaps even stripping them of their citizenship and other rights)… a ‘Jewish State’ as such in Israel would mean legally that while Palestinians no longer have citizens’ rights there, any member of world Jewry outside of Israel… should be entitled to full citizens’ rights there, no matter wherever they may be in the world today and regardless of their current nationality.”

“Israel should be a state of all its citizens, not a state that belongs to one part of its population. Israel defines itself as a Jewish state. So, it’s not our state. It’s not just a question of definition or nature. It’s a question of substance, structure, aims, goals, policies, laws …

The state should be the state of all its citizens, in equality. That’s modern democracy, based on the equal human being, not the hierarchical human being… Israel is not a secular state – it has not even reached the point of separation of religion and state. You can’t separate religion and state so long as the state is defined as a Jewish state… The Israeli structure is that the state is a Jewish state and there are minorities. We think the state should be empty – and there are Jews, and there are Arabs, and there can be others. Like, in principle, India. India is a secular state… neutral between religions, between groups. It doesn’t belong to one of the religions.”