The Nation State That is Israel, Needs Democracy

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On May 15, 1948, just hours before Shabbat was to begin, the State of Israel was reborn, renewing sovereignty for the Jewish people in their homeland.

Preceded by months of irregular fighting and set on the eve of an invasion, the Jews of British Mandate Palestine waited for answers as history was about to unfold. Would there be war? Would the world recognize the state? People did not even know what the country would be called until David Ben-Gurion announced the establishment of the State of Israel by means of a remarkable Declaration of Independence.

Grounded in the historical relationship between the people of Israel and the land, recalling the traumas of exile and the Holocaust, and emphasizing the renewal of Jewish settlement and the building of a new physical and social infrastructure, the declaration called into being the third Jewish commonwealth, in the land of Israel, and announced that it was to be called the State of Israel. With all the many questions that surrounded the announcement, it was never in doubt that this new democratic government would lead a country dedicated to freedom, justice, and full civil rights for all its citizens:

“The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will 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; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

These concepts, as found in the declaration, are the essentials for modern nation states dedicated to civil society. Nation states are vehicles for the security and self- actualization of the nation. All nation states contain within them ethnic and religious minorities, but states nurturing civil society serve all citizens equally before the law. While the state retains its national character through the national majority, civil nation states manage relationships within the nation state framework by assuring civil rights to all citizens. The state and its government continue to serve the needs of the nation and the needs of citizens generally through the interplay between government and civil society, finding direction and fulfilling national need while preserving essential security and continuity through universal civil rights. All citizens are protected as a matter of principle, as an integral part of the state in its operation for the nation.

Jews in the diaspora understand profoundly the importance of these arrangements. It was of special poignancy for the pioneers who came to settle the land, where Jews would no longer be a minority, that they set forward these principles as cornerstones for the Jewish state and its relationship with all its residents, even under the duress of war.

These principles of a socially just democracy now are being challenged within Israel. It is no accident that the source of that challenge comes from those whose dream is to expand the Jewish state, to push formal borders to include the “Greater Land of Israel,” an effort that will change the demographic make-up to create a state where the majority of the population no longer will be Jews.

Pending Israeli legislation lays down the groundwork to deny civil rights to select elements of society. These laws serve as an expedient to preserve control within a state already conceived as lacking a Jewish majority. There is a bill to eliminate Arabic as a legal language in Israel. There is a bill that proclaims that “when there is a conflict between democratic law and Jewish law, Jewish law will prevail.”

The loss of civil rights protects no one. In abandoning the framework of democracy, the erosion of civil liberties will not end with the non-Jewish segment but will ultimately be imposed by Jews on Jews. And in vain, because this expedient will not solve the fundamental problems of a minority ruling over a majority.

Israel’s Jewish character emerges from its population. The Jewish state’s ability to serve the nation rests profoundly on its democratic character. The founders understood this, and their vision is enshrined in their declaration, framing a state and civil society for all its residents. For its Jewish character, the Jewish state rested upon the territorial concentration of a Jewish majority. The deviation from the path set by the founders imperils the entire project.

A nation state without a significant national majority, preserved by anti-democratic expedients, will neither serve the nation nor its citizens. Fundamentally, it is not viable.

Mark Gold of Teaneck holds a Ph.D. in Economics from NYU.  He serves on the executive board of Partners for Progressive Israel, a member organization of the American Zionist Movement and an affiliate of the World Union of Meretz.

Originally Published in Jewish Standard at jstandard.com: 14 May 2015

Dr. Mark Gold and Hiam Simon

Hiam Simon of Englewood is the chief operating officer of Ameinu, the leading progressive Zionist membership organization in the United States. He lived in Israel for many years, where he was the dean of students for what is now the Alexander Muss High School, and he served in the IDF as a sergeant in the artillery.

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10 Responses

  1. As a Brit we have not forgotten that we trained many of the Israelis as soldiers. Then those soldiers were too intent on killing as many Palestinians as they could and we had to leave our mandate as it became obvious that the Jewish people we unleashed on the Palestinians were just too bloodthirsty and uncontrollable. You may have footage or not of the attacks against the British and the Christians, here in England we still do as part of our national archive. At the time, the British wanted Jews to have a homeland where they could defend their borders, have peace and an end to the historic and chronic abuse and discrimination they had suffered for centuries. I still believe that the Israel that was recognized in 1947 should belong to Jewish people. Israel has, over the last 70 years (since 1936) concentrated it’s main efforts into humiliating and denouncing the rights of Palestinians, driving them out of their homes, stealing those lands and killing indiscriminately any (Palestinians) who stood in their way. The world looked on, and away from the tyranny, mostly out of shame, but also a sense of hopelessness for what we had let loose on the Palestinian peoples. We knew what we had done and did not make reparation to the people of Palestine. We have been looking the other way ever since, until the last offensive in which Gaza was shelled mercilessly and it’s civilians slaughtered. Now the people of the civilized world (those who do not have a vested interest in keeping Israel as a strategic armed military presence in an otherwise Arab middle east) have made their choice. Israel must be made to do right by the Palestinian people. We will not tolerate the “victim” card played any more, or the propaganda regarding militia fighting back against the apartheid and cruelties, as “terrorists”. Israel must tear down the wall and make redress to the Palestinians to include removing settlers from lands held by Palestinians for over 1600 years and the theft of lands traditionally held by Bedouins for over 3,000 years. Israel is now condemned by millions the world over including Jews from but not limited to, the US, Iran, Russia, Germany,France and of course the UK. We seek to impose sanctions against Israel and a two state solution is now the only safe option for the Palestinians. I had hoped that Isaac Herzog would win the elections – he for me, represented a light in an other worldly darkness. My hopes dashed to find nazi Net the Nut(our nickname for him) back in the saddle leaves very little room for manoeuvre, but if the maniacal Netanyahu can be removed and a less psychotic PM can take the reins, then possibly all the Jews currently holding their collective breath can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Zionism itself is not evil it is only an ideal, a hope, a wish – one that was granted, but at what cost to the Jewish faith? I haven’t spoken to God in many years, but I can still hear his voice in the teachings of Jesus, can the same be said of Israel’s Jews. I know that many moderate Jews want to see change and are trying to effect it, and it must happen, for the sake of Jews all over the world who are now seeing an upsurge of anti-Semitism I hope the change occurs sooner rather than later. If I could pray again, I would ask my prophet Jesus to take his wisdom back to the lands from whence he came and deliver his message to the people he once loved. Please find the solution soon, while the world might still forgive.

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