Laws that define a democratic state play an important part in copperfastening the idea of such a state as a state of all the people. They lay the basis for its political legitimacy and a “consent to be governed” that extends well beyond a temporary majority, encompassing, if possible, a permanent minority in a social contract that is essential to preserving the democratic order.
Benyamin Netanyahu's forcing through cabinet of a new basic law emphasising Israel's Jewish character is dangerously partisan and provocative. But in playing the majoritarian bullyboy with the fundamental law of the land, the prime minister may also be undermining the legitimacy of the very institutions he purports to cherish. The bill, a proposal for a basic law – "Israel, the Nation-State of the Jewish People"– passed 14-6, with Finance and Justice Ministers Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni and their two centrist parties opposing it.
Mr Netanyahu insists that the Bill, which may yet bring down the government when it reaches parliament, represents a legitimate response to the fact that “there are many who are challenging Israel’s character as the national state of the Jewish people. The Palestinians refuse to recognise this, and there is also opposition from within.”
Critics respond that the Declaration of Independence of 1948, which has the force of law, anyway proclaims the “right of the Jewish people to be a nation, as all other nations, in its own Sovereign State” and also pledges to “uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex.” They warn that the new Bill emphasises Israel’s Jewish character above its democratic nature, and will confirm the perception of country’s 20 per cent Arab – Muslim and Christian – population that they are regarded constitutionally as second class citizens, deprived even of the legitimate aspiration to see Israel develop as a democratic multi-ethnic state.
Against a background of heightened tensions over a revered holy site in Jerusalem, protests and a recent wave of deadly Palestinian attacks against Israelis in the city and beyond, Mr Netanyahu is again pouring petrol on a raging fire.