Jewish state
The term "
Jewish State" is sometimes used to describe the
State of Israel and refers to its status as a
nation-state for the
Jewish people. This concept of an
ethnic Jewish
homeland is enshrined in Israeli national policy and reflected in many of Israel's public institutions. The concept was codified in the
Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel on
14 May 1948 as well as in the
Law of Return, which was passed by the
Knesset on
5 July 1950, and stated "Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh," an "oleh" being an
immigrant Jew [
1]. This is intended to make
citizenship easier to acquire for Jews.
There has been growing debate in Israel on the character of the state, if it should enshrine more
Jewish culture, encourage
Judaism in schools, enshrine certain laws of
Kashrut and
Sabbath observance within Israel. This debate reflects a historical divide within
Zionism and among the Jewish citizens of Israel, which has large
secular and traditional/
Orthodox minorities as well as a majority which lies somewhere between the two.
Secular Zionism, the historically dominant stream, is rooted in a concept of the Jews as a
people and in a concept of international law as premised on the
self-determination of peoples through the nation-state structure. Another reason sometimes submitted for such establishment was to have a state where Jews would not be afraid of
anti-Semitic attacks and live in peace, although such a reason is not a requirement of the self-determination right and therefore subsidiary to it in secular Zionist thinking.
Religious Zionists, who believe religious beliefs and traditional practices are central to Jewish peoplehood, counter that assimilating to be a secular "nation like any other" would be
oxymoronic in nature, and do more to harm than to help the Jewish people. They seek instead to establish what they see as an "authentic Jewish commonwealth" which preserves and encourages Jewish heritage.[
2]Drawing an analogy to diaspora Jews who assimilated into other cultures and abandoned Jewish culture, whether voluntary or otherwise, they argue that the creation of a secular state in Israel is tantamount to establishing a state where Jews assimilate
en masse as a nation, and therefore anathema to what they view as Jewish national aspirations. Zionism is rooted in a concept of the Jews as a
nation, in this capacity, they believe that Israel has a mandate to promote Judaism, to be the center of Jewish culture and center of its population, perhaps even the sole legitimate representative of Jews worldwide.
Partisans of the first view are predominantly, though by no means exclusively, secular or less traditional. Partisans of the second view are almost exclusively traditional or Orthodox, although they also include supporters who follow other streams of Judaism or are less traditional but
conservative and would not object to a more prominent state role in promoting Jewish beliefs -- although not to the point of creating a purely
Halakhic state.
The debate is therefore characterized by significant polarities. Secular and religious Zionists argue passionately about what a Jewish state should represent. Anti-Zionists and Zionists argue about whether a Jewish state should exist at all. Having been created within the sphere of international law as the instrument for Jewish self-determination, the question of whether Israel is to maintain and strengthen its status as a state for the Jewish people, or transition to being a state purely for "all of its citizens", or identify as both captures these polarities. Israel has, to date, steered an imperfect course more or less between these poles, waxing and waning between secularism and Jewish identity, usually depending on who controls the Israeli
High Court of Justice.
Advocates of Israel becoming a more narrowly Jewish commonwealth face at least the following practical and theoretical difficulties:
# How to deal with the non-Jewish
Arab minority in Israel (and the
non-Jewish majority in the
West Bank and
Gaza).# How to alleviate concerns of Jews in Israel who favor a relatively secular state. [
3]# What relationship should official
Judaism hold
vis-à-vis the Government of Israel and vice versa? [
4]# What role do schools play in supporting Jewish heritage, religion, culture, and state?[
5]# How will the
government be organized (
theocracy,
constitutional theocracy,
constitutional
republic,
parliamentary democracy etc.)?[
6]# Should the
Justice system be based on secular common law, secular civil law, a combination of Jewish and
common law, a combination of Jewish and
civil law, or pure Jewish law?[
7]# On what mandate or legal
principles should the
constitution a Jewish state be based? [
8]# How to integrate the
economy of the state in line with
Jewish law.
Theorists who grapple with these issues focus on the future of the State of Israel and realize that although the sovereign political state has been established, there is still much work to be done in relation to the
identity of the state itself. [
9]
The idea of Israel being a Jewish State has drawn much controversy because of the large number of
Muslim and
Christian Palestinians residing in Israel and in the
West Bank and
Gaza. For example, the Israeli
National Anthem, the
Hatikvah, refers to Jews by name as well as alluding to the concept of
Zionism, and it contains no mention of Palestinian
culture. This anthem therefore excludes non-Jews, including the Palestinians, from its narrative of national identity. Similar criticism has been made of the
Israeli flag which resembles the
Tallit (a Jewish prayer shawl) and features a
Star of David, generally acknowledged as a symbol of
Judaism. Both of these symbols derive from the Zionist struggle to create a nation-state, a struggle in which the Arabs figure as defeated opponents, not as active participants.
It has been suggested by supporters of Israeli
multinationalism that the State of Israel adopt more inclusive and neutral symbolism. The concept of the Jewish state has been called
racist and
ethnocentric by critics, both internationally and inside Israel signified by the
UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 linking Zionism to racism (later revoked by
UN General Assembly Resolution 4686) but brought up again by the new
Durban Declaration. Some critics assert that the idea of an ethnic state is itself racist and the ethnicity in question (or its history) does not matter. This view has been expounded by
Noam Chomsky, himself Jewish, in an interview on
C-SPAN where he said:
"I have always supported a Jewish ethnic homeland in Palestine. That is different from a Jewish state. There's a strong case to be made for an ethnic homeland, but as to whether there should be a Jewish state, or a Muslim state, or a Christian state, or a
white state — that's entirely another matter."
Opponents of this view who argue from a secular basis counter that the Jewish people constitute a nation who deserve their own state under international law, such that singling Israel out from this concept of self-determination is said to be
anti-Semitic[
10], offering examples of other ethnic states and pointing out that the very idea is enshrined in the concept of the nation-state and the international legal order based on that concept. Opponents to this view who argue on the basis of Jewish religious arguments found their assertion on the
Torah's promises of Israel to the Jews, and Jewish nationalists base this assertion on the
Balfour Declaration, historical ties to the land, and a fear that a hostile Arab world might commit
genocide against a Jewish minority if Israel ever became "a state for all its citizens." Others add that a Jewish state in their historical homeland is fair compensation for centuries of persecution by non-Jews, and counter that their detractors are themselves
Eurocentric, and should not tell other nations how to run their affairs.
*
Land of Israel*
History of Israel*
Palestine*
Israeli-Palestinian conflict*
Binational solution*
1947 UN Partition Plan*
Proposals for a Palestinian state*
Elon Peace Plan*
Christian Zionism
