Equality, multiculturalism and the dilemmas of civility in Israel

Abstract

A liberal defense of the right of particularistic cultural groups to ex press themselves and maintain the material conditions necessary for their lifestyles within the context of a liberal democratic public sphere, is plagued by the issue of equality. This is especially so in a nation-state such as Israel, where the institutionalization of the principle of cultural equality inevitably undermine^ the establishment goals of the state. Israel belongs to the group of nation-states with democratic political systems, such as France, Germany, or Norway, whose governments "take an interest in the cultural survival of the majority nation; they don't claim to be neutral with reference to the language, history, literature, calendar or even the minor mores of the ma jority" (Walzer 1994, p. 100). The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 was the culmination of the work of Zionist-Jewish nationalists whose continuing cultural program cen ters on the maintenance of a "Jewish" country. The Zionist agenda creates a situation of structured inequality for the local Arab-Palestinian popula tion who overwhelmingly reject the particularistic cultural goals of the state, and for anti-modern ultra-Orthodox Jews1 who are unwilling to legitimate a sovereign Jewish state that is not governed by religious Jewish law. If these latter groups do not have an equal opportunity to realize their cul tural aspirations within the Israeli public sphere, then can one meaningfully call Israel a liberal democracy? Michael Walzer argues that nation-states of the Israeli type can legiti mately be considered liberal, if "they vindicate their liberalism by tolerating and respecting ethnic and religious differences and allowing all minorities an equal freedom to organize their members, express their cultural values, and reproduce their way of life in civil society and the family" (Walzer 1994, p. 100). My effort in this article is to develop a micro-sociological theory for the purpose of deconstructing, and critiquing statements like