Published: 23 July 2018
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Last week this bill, with a few amendments, became law.
Presenting itself as a revised version 2.0 of the Declaration of the State of Israel, which very clearly “ensure[s] complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex,” the nation-state bill has enshrined a second-class citizenship for non-Jewish citizens of Israel.
Some of the most offensive clauses in the bill include the downgrading of Arabic as one of the two official languages of Israel, and a last-minute amendment asserting that the state “places a national value on development of Jewish settlements”.
With an intentional vagueness regarding which side of the Green Line it refers to, this clause enables a country notorious for its underfunding of Arab cities to promote the development of Jewish settlements in Israel proper and Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Not only will it further impinge on any chance of reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians, this bill legalises discrimination against minorities.
Mr Rivlin's conjuring of “Jews throughout the world” seems somewhat out of place. Why, at this frightening moment in Israeli history, is the President of Israel concerned about we Jews in the Diaspora? I, for one, am far more concerned about the non-Jewish citizens of Israel, who are set to suffer most under this new law.
As both an Israeli and Australian citizen, I have the privilege, - not to be taken for granted - of being a voting member of two democracies. I have the right to express my political will and act out of self-interest when I vote in both countries. In Israel, my political leanings may currently place me in the minority, but my identity as a Jew places me in the 80% majority..
The country’s laws were designed in a way to protect my rights as a member of that majority.
President Rivlin’s statement was a cry for help - an appeal to Jews from around the world who still know what it means to be a minority, and to be protected by the democracies in which they live.
But I have not always had the privilege of embodying the majority. In Australia, as a Jew, I am part of a minority, and it is within that context that I personally gain far more from having the privilege to live in a democracy.
As an Australian Jew, I not only have the democratic right (and obligation) to vote in Australian elections, but also the right to cultivate my minority status and enjoy the protection of my religious, cultural and political identity.
In that context, Mr Rivlin’s statement was a cry for help - an appeal to Jews from around the world who still know what it means to be a minority, and to be protected by the democracies in which they live. He knows that Diaspora Jews living in democracies today enjoy democratic rights that many of his own citizens - both Jewish and non-Jewish - cannot enjoy themselves. We enjoy full democratic rights, while still enjoying full religious freedom.
When he says this bill could “harm… Jews around the world” he is pointing to the growing divide between Israel and Jews around the world, who are no longer living in countries which offer its citizens the same democratic rights and religious freedoms.
Mr Rivlin is all too aware that ishould a comparable law be passed in other countries favouring, for example, Christianity over democracy, it would be the Jewish Diaspora communities who would be left unprotected. Although the time has long since passed since these countries underwent a separation between church and state, Israel appears to be regressing.
As a state established by Jewish immigrants who were not afforded such protection in their countries of birth, I would think it only appropriate that Israel uphold the value of equality and inclusion for all its citizens. Why should an Israeli citizen live with any fewer rights than those we have as Australian citizens?
Photo: Knesset Member Ayman Odeh holds a sign reading "Equality" during a protest against Israel's "Nationality Bill' in Tel Aviv on Saturday, July 21 (Abir Sultan/EPA)
