After Israel’s Nationality Law of 2018: Is the “Blood Covenant” Broken for the Druze?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the medium-term effects of Israel’s 2018 Nation-State legislation on Druze consciousness and prospects for the future. It is informed by interviews with fourteen Druze political thought leaders (more than half of whom are current or former Members of Knesset). From the founding of the State of Israel, the relationship between the Druze minority and the Jewish majority has been constructed on the narrative of a “covenant of blood” or “blood pact.” This refers principally to the extreme sacrifices undertaken by soldiers, Jews and Druze alike, when fighting in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and other security institutions to protect their shared homeland. Despite systemic inequities revolving around land and employment, the idiom of “blood pact” endured. With the passage of the 2018 Basic Law of the Nation-State, however, a pillar of the covenant has been shaken. So has the mutually beneficial ambiguity that had squared Israel’s self-definition as Jewish and democratic. Although representing different parties and ideological viewpoints, Druze political thought leaders concur on one point: although the law has not (yet) had a significant impact on the day-to-day lives of the Druze community, in the longer-term, judicial decisions will increasingly be constrained or framed in ways deleterious to the civic rights of Druze. Corrective amendment to the law acknowledging Druze service to the Jewish state is more likely than outright abrogation of it. If and until such “correction” occurs, the covenant will continue to erode. The J-Curve “frustration of rising expectations” model is adapted to explain the vociferous mass Druze reaction to the passage of the Nationality Law.