Amid the emotional storm Israelis have been living through since the Hamas attack, the distinction between Israelis and Jews has completely collapsed. On television, there are no Israeli victims; the murdered are “Jews” and the hostages are “Jews.” And that’s despite the fact that Hamas demonstratively made no distinction among its Israeli victims on the basis of religion, race, gender or ethnicity.
The distinguished role the Druze have played in the fighting and the fact that several have fallen in battle has revived discussion of amending the nation-state law, or alternatively legislating a separate basic law enshrining the Druze community’s status. It wouldn’t be an exalted status like that of the Jews under the nation-state law, but it also wouldn’t be an inferior status like that of the Arabs.
I would like to join Amal Asad’s justified protest that “any attempt to enact special laws for the Druze would be an even bigger humiliation than the nation-state law”. It would also be a humiliation for Israel as a whole. It’s impossible to fix the nation-state law because the law is fundamentally flawed. It seeks to enshrine Jews’ preferential status in Israel and give them exclusive power over the state’s character regardless of their proportion in the population, and even if they ceased to be a majority.
Moreover, the law is based on the delusion that it’s possible to fight demographic processes – whether organic or political ones (such as annexing territory along with its inhabitants) – through legislation and still remain a democracy. The bottom line is that in a democratic country, the majority shapes the state’s character throughout its history. If, for instance, the ultra-Orthodox someday become a majority of the country, they will be able through democratic means to alter the country’s lifestyle to suit their own beliefs.
It’s possible to maintain a status quo as long as a clear majority of the citizens support it. But it’s impossible to maintain a country’s character over time with no connection to the character of its majority – or at least, it’s impossible to do so through democratic means. The only way to preserve Israel’s character as we know and love it is to ensure that as many people as possible love the country, identify with it as it is, and want to keep it as it is. If the state’s self-definition excludes some citizens due to their religion or ethnicity, it will alienate them from the country.
If this war has proven anything, it’s that Israel needs alliances to survive, with all due respect to the Israel Defense Forces and the Iron Dome system. And this absolutely doesn’t mean the United States alone. Israel’s friendships with European states and other countries around the world, its peace agreements and its normalization agreements all form a ring of protection against attacks on the country.
This has been reflected, for instance, in what the closing statement of the Arab-Islamic summit two weeks ago didn’t include – cutting diplomatic ties, preventing arms transfers to Israel from U.S. bases in those countries, preventing flights over Arab countries or threatening to use the oil weapon.
Israel’s strength is also a function of its internal alliances. “Israelis – not just Jews – have proved their solidarity, brotherhood and Israeliness during this difficult time, with everyone getting behind the joint effort to win the war against our enemies,” Assad wrote. He also reminded readers that just like the Jews, “we also have no other country.”
The nation-state law should be repealed not for the sake of the Druze, but for the sake of all Israelis. The state must nurture an overarching Israeli identity to which every group can feel that it belongs. Israel needs a leadership that aspires to draw in everyone who currently feels left out of Israeliness, rather than one that deepens the rift by continuing to exclude them from the state’s self-definition. Without Israeli – not Jewish – solidarity, Israel won’t be able to defeat its enemies or preserve the Israeli way of life over time.
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A Conspiracy of Silence / The Killing Floor of Gaza
Manifesto of the One Democratic State Campaign for Israel-Palestine
The Harvard Law Review Refused to Run This Piece About Genocide in Gaza
Michael Brenner: Europe-Jews-Muslims
Palestine and Israel: Historical, Legal and Moral Issues
Netanyahu’s deliberate extremism has failed
Haaretz Editorial: Netanyahu Bears Responsibility for This Israel-Gaza War
Israel imposing apartheid on Palestinians, says former Mossad chief
Gaza, trades unions, fascism & oppression
Bertrand Russell’s Last Message on Israel and Palestine
Dogs of war / New acronym in Gaza: WCNSF – Wounded Child No Surviving Family
After the truth-shower 