Abstract
This paper uses Israel’s 2018 Nation-State Law, which guarantees the “ethnic-religious character of Israel as exclusively Jewish,” as a lens to reveal the ongoing socio-political change in Israel and processes of democratic erosion. In addition to having immediate relevance for contemporary Israeli policy, especially concerning the status of Arab Israelis and the likely annexation of the West Bank, the law poses a profound, existential challenge for the maintenance of Israel as a democratic state. Drawing on Fareed Zakaria’s theory of “illiberal democracy,” this paper analyses the implications of this law for Israel, for the linked concepts of liberalism and democracy, and for the future of the democratic state in an increasingly illiberal world. The law is a culmination of other basic laws and political thresholds, and accelerates settler colonialism. Gaining more international attention than previous basic laws, the political thresholds prior to the Nation-State Law and cumulative legislation building up to the debate have been ignored. Analysing these thresholds will reveal the efficacy of supporting such a law and using nationhood provisions in other Western democratic constitutions as justification. This paper is a warning: to act upon seemingly insignificant anti-democratic legislation before political actions become irreparable. The law is a culmination of other basic laws, political thresholds, and accelerates settler colonialism. Gaining more international attention than previous basic laws, direct discriminatory implications on Arab minorities as well as powerful legal consequences, the political thresholds prior to the Nation-State Law and cumulative legislation building up to the debate have been ignored. This paper will hopefully reveal the efficacy of supporting such a law and using the nationhood provisions in other constitutions in Western democracies as justification. This paper is a warning: to act upon seemingly insignificant anti-democratic legislation before political actions become irreparable.
Highlights
Israel’s thirteenth Basic Law, the Nation-State Law, was passed with a slim 62-55 majority and two abstentions on 19 July 2018 (IATF, 2018)
Discriminatory, and geographically significant aspects of the law, I will demonstrate that the law perpetuates a much longer history of illiberal democracy, even as it stands out as an eventful milestone
I will develop two key concepts that will underpin my analysis: the concept of “illiberal democracy” and the concept of the “threshold.” The concept of illiberal democracy, which was popularised by Fareed Zakaria (1997) in a widely cited Foreign Affairs article and subsequently expanded upon in his book The Future of Freedom (2007), suggests that its two constitutive terms – illiberalism and democracy – seemingly at odds with each other, are increasingly applied together
Summary
This paper uses Israel’s 2018 Nation-State Law, which guarantees the “ethnic-religious character of Israel as exclusively Jewish,” as a lens to reveal the ongoing socio-political change in Israel and processes of democratic erosion. Drawing on Fareed Zakaria’s theory of “illiberal democracy,” this paper analyses the implications of this law for Israel, for the linked concepts of liberalism and democracy, and for the future of the democratic state in an increasingly illiberal world. Gaining more international attention than previous basic laws, the political thresholds prior to the Nation-State Law and cumulative legislation building up to the debate have been ignored. Analysing these thresholds will reveal the efficacy of supporting such a law and using nationhood provisions in other Western democratic constitutions as justification. This paper is a warning: to act upon seemingly insignificant anti-democratic legislation before political actions become irreparable
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