The Knesset passed the nation-state bill through its first reading on Tuesday with a majority of 64 lawmakers voting in favor and 50 opposed.
The controversial legislation, sponsored by Member of Knesset Avi Dikhter (Likud), now needs to pass its second and third readings in order to become law.
The bill aims to enshrine the State of Israel’s status as the nation-state of the Jewish people and affirm the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in its homeland as a unique right.
The bill would also establish the symbols of the state, Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the Hebrew language as the official language, the Hebrew calendar as the state’s official calendar and the commemoration of Jewish festivals, Israel’s Independence Day and days of remembrance in the Basic Law.
“The State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people,” said Dikhter.
“This is a clear fact. But despite everything, after 70 years, unfortunately, it is not clear to everyone and it is certainly is not anchored in any law in the State of Israel.
Dikhter is clearly motivated by a genuine concern over what many regard as the fragility of Israel’s Jewish character. But this fragility only exists for those who limit themselves to European notions of nationalism. While it’s obvious that Jerusalem is our capital and that we should measure time and speak according to the Hebrew calendar and tongue, attempting to legally enshrine Jewish decorations into a Western nation-state structure misses the point and only serves to reinforce a tired conflict between shallow Jewish nationalism and shallow Western liberalism.
Superficial Jewish decorations on a European-style nation-state might have worked during the Zionist stage of our people’s national rebirth but it falls short of satisfying our deeper aspirations or realizing the vision we came home to share with mankind.
Some of the lawmakers who opposed the bill argued that such legislation would weaken Israel’s non-Jewish minority populations, despite assurances that it wouldn’t harm Israel’s Palestinian citizens from Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) while speaking at the Sharia court in Sakhnin.
The conflict in Israeli society over the state’s Jewish decorations expresses a deeper battle taking place between Jewish tribalism and Western universalism, both of which are flawed yet possess powerful truths.
Rather than feeding into a stale debate that relates to both Israel’s Jewish and democratic values in the most superficial way (leaving both largely undefined and in perpetual conflict with one another), Israeli leaders should be seeking to delve deeper into the question of what a “Jewish state” actually means in the 21st century and to transcend the either/or “Jewish versus democratic state” paradigm.
Transcending the friction between Jewish nationalism and Western universalism requires Israel’s Jewish character to become softer and deeper than it currently is. So soft that minority populations feel 100% equal and included in our society, yet so deep in the essence of how that society is structured that the state naturally expresses our people’s core values in its policies and institutions.
Any ideology that recognizes Israel to be in a post-Zionist stage of our national development, appreciates the need for fresh paradigms and attempts to transcend the conflict between narrow Jewish nationalism and Western universalism should be included in a broader category of a Hebrew universalism that encourages a necessary conversation about our identity and future while offering space to thinkers from various backgrounds to enter the conversation without needing to subscribe to any specific conclusions.
The only way to move forward passed the frictions of outdated paradigms is to formulate new ideological visions relevant to the current stage of Jewish liberation.
