About a month ago, the coalition, led by the top echelon of the Likud party, decided to support a bill defining Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people that intentionally does not mention equal rights to all Israel's citizens.
Earlier this month, I argued that in this decision, Likud's political calculations prevailed over national considerations. Last week, Likud ministers offered even more alarming explanations for the absence of equality for all citizens from the bill.
It turns out that this decision was not just a matter of political calculation, but also a matter of principle.
According to these Likud ministers, an equal rights clause has no place in the Jewish nation-state bill because the objective of the legislation is "to restore balance to the High Court of Justice ruling." The ruling, according to them, goes too far in upholding civilian rights, at the expense of the nation's Jewish character.
With this bill, the party not only seeks to profit politically, but it also explicitly hopes to take Israel backward to a time before the legislation of Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. These Likud ministers are openly lamenting this essential basic law and condemning its implications for our lives. Minister Yariv Levin explained last week (on Israel Radio) that "all we are trying to do is to take Israel back to where it was in its first years, as it was initially established. ... We want to make Israel into what it once used to be."
It is strange to see Likud members express such longing for the past.
What did we have in those "first years," in the fledgling State of Israel? Back then, the socialist Mapai party ruled unchallenged; the prime minister arbitrarily tried to close down an oppositional newspaper; the government callously denied war veterans -- members of underground movements the leadership didn't like -- their rightful Defense Ministry benefits; the security service was used to serve the ruling party; the government imposed military rule for 18 years, which included a curfew on Arab citizens between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., and there are other examples of actions by a government that aspired to rule uninhibited.
In this manner, that leadership distorted the fundamental tenets of Israeli Declaration of Independence, which include the characterization of Israel as a Jewish nation-state, but also the stipulation that it would uphold equal rights for all citizens.
The latest bill draws from the Declaration of Independence only the idea of a Jewish nation-state, but negates the notion of equal rights for all citizens. A bill that borrows only the Jewish state aspect negates equality, thus permitting discrimination. It is no wonder that a group of Druze citizens, some of whom served in the Israel Defense Forces, declared last week that the bill makes them feel like second-class citizens despite their enormous contribution to the State of Israel.
It is imperative to look at the far-reaching, dangerous implications of a "Jewish nation-state" bill that lacks the principle of equality.
"Pushing the pendulum back" necessarily means depriving us of important achievements legislated by the Israeli judiciary over the last 20 years for the protection of Israeli citizens' dignity and liberty.
It is necessary, and also possible, to thwart this attack on the core essence of the State of Israel and fight for a nation-state bill that contains both these supremely important ideas: that Israel be the nation-state of the Jewish people, and that it uphold equal rights for all citizens.
