A “Jewish State” or a “State for All Its Citizens?”: Palestinian Demands for Redefining the Boundaries of the Israeli National Identity and the Jewish Response

Year 2020, Issue: 7, 4 - 17, 21.06.2021

Z. Aslı Elitsoy

Abstract

Abstract: The “Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty,” which functions as the country’s de facto constitution, has defined Israel as a “Jewish state,” thus putting the equal rights of all non-Jewish citizens within the Israeli polity into question. As a consequence of the Jewish nature of the state, the Jews have been elevated, whether they were citizens or not, into a privileged position over others and governments gave institutional and legal preference to the Jewish majority particularly in the realms of immigration laws, land allocation, and military service. By the 1990s, however, Israel’s citizens of Palestinian descent seemed to find a balance between their Palestinian and Israeli identities and this tendency was accompanied by a growing emphasis on their status as a “national minority in its historical homeland” and a political struggle for collective rights. Challenging the Jewish hegemony, they have persistently claimed to transform the Jewish state into a “state for all its citizens,” and, hence, the recognition of their status as a national minority entitled to collective rights, including the right to self-government and equal representation in the governing bodies. What has been the Israeli state response to these demands? Using qualitative data derived from several in-depth interviews with the members of the Israeli political elite conducted in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa between December 2018 and January 2020, this study argued that Israeli policy makers continued to pursue a “security-oriented” policy towards Israeli Palestinians due to their trans-border ethnic relations. As a consequence, the Palestinian demand for establishing a “state for all its citizens,” which challenged the Jewish nature of the state, has been seen as a denial of Israel’s right to exist, or to put in discussion the Jews’ right to statehood.

Keywords

Ethnic Minorities, National Identity, Exclusion, Palestinian Citizens, Israel

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