Nation-State Law Research Articles

In-between group membership within intergroup conflicts: The case of Druze in Israel.

In-between groups encompass individuals who simultaneously belong to social categories that are often seen as mutually exclusive in addition to maintaining their distinct group identity. The current paper sheds light on how members of in-between groups manage their relations within intergroup conflicts. Three studies were conducted among the Druze minority in Israel, a group that is ethnically Arab and shares the Arab identity with the Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel and simultaneously identifies as Israeli. In Study 1 (N = 300), we found that identification as Druze was positively associated with the identification as Arab and Israeli. In Study 2, we examined Druze's endorsement of conflict narratives compared to Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian citizens (N = 271). While the latter participants endorsed their ingroup narrative more than the outgroup narrative, Druze participants endorsed both narratives equally. In Study 3, we tested Druze's solidarity with the Palestinian minority against the 2018 Nation-State Law. We found that overall, Druze participants (N = 568) endorsed more inclusive amendments that benefited the Druze and Palestinians than exclusive amendments that benefited the Druze only. In all studies, we tested the role of identification with the rival groups. We discuss these findings and suggest possible underlying mechanisms.

The Citizenship Regime Change Behind Israel’s Rule-of-Law Crisis

This article delineates the relations between the judicial overhaul launched by Israel’s right-wing government in 2023 and the mechanisms of Israel’s control over Palestinians, demonstrating that they are two parts of a regime change. The essay traces a series of changes in Israel’s citizenship regime the past decade: the enactment of an anti-terrorism law and a nation-state law that defined the exclusive right of Jews to self-determination in Israel; the domestic application of surveillance and control practices developed in the occupied territories; and finally legislation allowing the revocation of Palestinians’ citizenship and the de facto annexation of the occupied territories.

The Manifestations of Using Force in Preemptive War

The Issue of preemptive war and the protection of States against the dangers and threats they face is a process that facilitates rectifying things and carrying out defensive operations that gave rise, in turn, to the legal capacity through repeating and stating them in the international agreements. Self-defense in international law is very similar to the right of defense in the national laws of states which consider the individual’s protection and survival as having the priority over the violator or the enemy. In order tackle all the aspects of the topic, the researchers have tried to divide the study into two main sections. The first section is about the definition of preemptive wars and the scholars’ opinions through two subsections: the first gives the definition of pre-emptive war, and the second tackles the requirements and the motivations of the preemptive war. While the second section which falls in two subsections is related to the role of the international organizations in defining these wars and their mechanisms. The first subsection is about the role of the League of Nations, and the second is about the role of the .United Nations in such wars

The (Non-)Use of African Law by the International Criminal Court

Abstract All defendants before the International Criminal Court (ICC) to date have been African, with their alleged crimes having been committed, at least partly, on African soil. When turning to national laws to resolve issues of interpretation in these cases, should the ICC see whether it can use laws of the African state in which the crime occurred? This article argues that it should, but observes – from a dataset of 16,192 citations containing over 200 citations to national laws – that it rarely does. Instead, it turns much more often to Western European and US laws. This phenomenon, the article suggests, troublingly reflects and perpetuates the marginalization of African and other global South laws from what constitutes international law. The article also argues that the Rome Statute requires the ICC to at least examine for appropriateness the laws of a subset of these neglected systems (‘the national laws of States that would normally exercise jurisdiction over the crime’) when identifying general principles of law. There are several compelling reasons to extend this examination requirement to African and other global South country laws more broadly, and even when not dealing with general principles of law, and few reasons not to.

Jewish Civilizationism in Israel: A Unique Phenomenon

Populism and civilizationism have transformed the politics of many countries. Many scholars consider them the biggest challenges to democracy since the rise of fascism and communism in the first half of the last century. The close affinity between populism, civilizationism, and rightwing politics has also been analyzed and recognized in many countries from Turkey to India to the US. However, there are three areas that distinguish the appearance of civilizationism in Israel. First, in contrast to many other countries, civilizationism in Israel is not a new phenomenon. It has been an essential part of Israeli nationalism or Zionism since the early 20th century. Second, unlike many countries, Jewish civilizationism in Israel is an article of faith for all major Israeli political parties. It is not a slogan raised only by the rightwing, conservative part of the political spectrum. Finally, one observes an affinity between civilizationism and populism. Civilizational rhetoric is the mainstay of populist leaders, such as Trump, Erdogan, etc. In Israel, populism and civilizationism have no special relationship as civilizationism is mainstream politics. All politicians, populists and non-populists, have to pay homage to Jewish civilizationism; otherwise, they will not succeed. This paper analyzes the Israeli founding fathers’ statements, the Declaration of Independence, Israeli state symbols, the revival of the Hebrew language, the Law of Return, the first debate in the Knesset, and the more recent Nation-State Law to demonstrate how Jewish civilizationism is old, mainstream, and not exclusively populist.

‘I’m Interviewing a Sheep’

Abstract In this article, I summarize the state of Arabic (as a medium and a message) in Israeli state media and compare attitudes towards the Arabic language with content from the popular bilingual (Arabic-Hebrew) sitcom written and created by a Palestinian-Israeli writer, Sayed Kashua. I argue that Kashua’s work in his show, Arab Labor, reiterates poor attitudes towards Arabic and foreshadows the ethnolinguistic erasure of Israel’s Nation-State Law of 2018. Using humor and satire within its content, context and dialogue, the show draws attention to growing disparities and impossibilities in Palestinian life throughout Israel and emerges as an intertextual resource for commentary and recreating conditions of Palestinian existence.

Jewish sovereignty and the inclusive exclusion of Palestinians: Shifting the conceptual understanding of politics in Israel/Palestine

This article explores the dynamics of Jewish sovereignty when dealing with the massive presence of millions of Palestinians in its sphere of power. It does so by looking at foundational Israeli documents. Two of the best to serve our goal are the Israeli Declaration of Independence (IDI), adopted in 1948, and the Basic Law—Israel: The Nation State of the Jewish People (Nation-State law) enacted in 2018. The aim is not to compare and contrast the two documents as much as to deduce the deep meaning of Jewish sovereignty embedded in them, and its ramifications on the Palestinian presence in the land this sovereignty dominates. It is argued that the two foundational documents establish an underlying differentiation between dissimilar realms of existence. Whereas they construct Jewish presence as dynamically sovereign, they render Palestinians as threatening strangers who should be subordinated or silenced to be tolerated. This means that the documents explicate the main characteristics of Jewish sovereignty. They also implicitly relate to the treatment of the Palestinians, whether considering the periods before or after 1967. To achieve its goal, the article utilizes Jacques Derrida's concept of differance, demonstrating that the Israeli strategy is best understood as the discursive and practical effort to establish differences between different groups of Palestinians and exploit the gaps between these differences to sustain its control over the millions of them who live in the realm of Jewish sovereignty. It shows that differance is about enforcing gaps between forms of being in the world. These forms are best articulated through the differentiation introduced by Martin Heidegger between the “worldless,” “the poor in world,” and the “world forming.”

Nation-State law – Is it Really a well Thought-Out law? Is It a Party manifesto or a Parliamentary act?

The author offers an analysis of the controversial Israeli Nation-State Law of 2018 and B. Netanyahu’s involvement in its adoption. He claims that its ideas manifest Netanyahu’s desire to depart from the state-centred, social democratic, and liberal views advocated by Ben Gurion. This desire stems from his strong disagreement with Israel’s founder’s claim and belief that secularism is a guarantee that Israel does not fall into the same trap as the leaders of the bicentennial Crusades – which ultimately failed. The author of the paper makes an insightful comparison of this law with the contents of Point 13 of Thomas Woodrow Wilson’s 1918 plan – a docu-ment from exactly 100 years before, designed to shape Europe after victory in the war against Russia, Prussia, and Austria-Hungary, on whose lands an independent Polish state was to be established.

Ustawa o narodzie – czy na pewno jest to ustawa przemyślana? To manifest partyjny czy ustawa parlamentarna?

The author offers an analysis of the controversial Israeli Nation-State Law of 2018 and B. Netanyahu’s involvement in its adoption. He claims that its ideas manifest Netanyahu’s desire to depart from the state-centred, social democratic, and liberal views advocated by Ben Gurion. This desire stems from his strong disagreement with Israel’s founder’s claim and belief that secularism is a guarantee that Israel does not fall into the same trap as the leaders of the bicentennial Crusades – which ultimately failed. The author of the paper makes an insightful comparison of this law with the contents of Point 13 of Thomas Woodrow Wilson’s 1918 plan – a docu-ment from exactly 100 years before, designed to shape Europe after victory in the war against Russia, Prussia, and Austria-Hungary, on whose lands an independent Polish state was to be established.

Israel's Nation-State Law

Israel's Nation-State Law

The Nation State Law and the Arabic Language in Israel: Downgrading, Replicating or Upgrading?

Article 4 of the Nation State Law (NSL), entitled ‘Languages’, stipulates that Hebrew is the language of the state (Article 4(a)); the Arabic language has a special status in the state and regulating the use of Arabic in or by state institutions will be set in law (Article 4(b)); and this clause does not harm the status given to the Arabic language before the law came into effect (Article 4(c), the ‘validity of laws’ clause). The question is whether, how, and to what extent these provisions hinder the present legal status of the Arabic language in Israel. The legal status of Arabic had never been determined decisively before enactment of the NSL. The High Court of Israel has always been divided on this matter, particularly between judges who perceived Arabic as an official language and judges who deemed it solely as having been granted its acknowledged ‘special legal status’. Furthermore, the judges who perceived Arabic as an official language of the state were also in dispute among themselves as to the meaning, the scope and the consequences of such recognition. Considering these circumstances, my view is that the NSL perpetuates the legal status of Arabic as prescribed in the laws and case law that already existed, and that the validity of laws clause, coupled with the special status granted to Arabic in a basic law, suggests that the door is still open for the Court to further endorse the legal status of Arabic in Israel.

Lliberal Democracy: the Case of Democratic Erosion

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.

Just Transitions for Oil and Gas Communities

Calls for a “just transition” for communities now dependent on fossil fuel extraction, production, and processing are increasingly driving national and international climate law and climate advocacy. This paper identifies a critical area of focus: Under U.S. law (and, indeed, under the law of most nation-states) there is not a clear just transition mechanism for communities economically reliant upon oil and gas industries – indeed, even the partial mechanisms available for many coal communities are largely absent. This gap is likely to create substantial legal, equitable, and practical obstacles to a rapid transition away from these fuels. The paper suggests mechanisms which could allow such communities to capture capital from incumbent oil and gas industrial actors to support their transition, including providing funds for community services and transitioning workers. It illustrates how such mechanisms could be instituted in the context of California, a major oil-and-gas producing jurisdiction that also has an ambitious climate policy. It closes with recommendations to advocates and to scholars, emphasizing that sustained attention to distributional justice in energy and environmental law and policy is critical.

Fact and Fiction: The Nation-State, Colonialism, and International Minority Law

Fact and Fiction: The Nation-State, Colonialism, and International Minority Law

The Nation-State Law, Populist Politics, Colonialism, and Religion in Israel: Linkages and Transformations

The Nation-State Law, Populist Politics, Colonialism, and Religion in Israel: Linkages and Transformations

Theopolitical Notes on Israel's Declaration of Independence

In 2018, the Knesset of Israel, led by its right-wing coalition, adopted the Nation-State Law, which affirmed that the State of Israel is the "nation-state of the Jewish people" and only the Jewish people. Many have contrasted this law with Israel's 1948 Declaration of Independence, which promised "complete equality of social and political rights" to all citizens, "irrespective of religion, race, or sex," and expressed a commitment to the moral teachings of the biblical prophets. The Declaration was written by socialists and rabbis, while the Nation-State Law was written by right-wing nationalists. The Declaration focused on three prophetic values: freedom, justice, and peace.

Israel’s Constitutional Order in Upheaval? Attempts of the 34th Government Coalition to Transform the Constitutional Order

Responding to the Supreme Court’s empowerment through the 1992 Constitutional. Revolution, Israeli policy- and lawmakers repeatedly challenged Israel’s constitutional order and the role of the Court within it as an unwelcomed restrain on executive and legislative powers. The 2015-elected Israeli government has been partially successful in entrenching its partisan vision of a majoritarian state serving the particular interests of the Jewish majority, rather than a state of all of its citizens following universal values. This vision has been enshrined in the Nation State Law, a new chapter of Israel’s fragmented “quasi-constitution” and complemented by the appointment of conservative judges to all levels of the Israel court system, including its Supreme Court. Threatening to change the judicial appointment process and restricting the Supreme Court’s authority to exercise judicial oversight over legislative and executive acts, the government sought to discourage the Court from exercising judicial activism. While the NSL represents a parting from a thicker, normative notion of constitutionalism, adopting the proposed Basic Law on Legislation would presumably pave the way for an executive unbound.

مظاهر استخدام القوة في الحرب الاستباقية

The Issue of preemptive war and the protection of States against the dangers and threats they face is a process that facilitates rectifying things and carrying out defensive operations that gave rise, in turn, to the legal capacity through repeating and stating them in the international agreements. Self-defense in international law is very similar to the right of defense in the national laws of states which consider the individual’s protection and survival as having the priority over the violator or the enemy. In order tackle all the aspects of the topic, the researchers have tried to divide the study into two main sections. The first section is about the definition of preemptive wars and the scholars’ opinions through two subsections: the first gives the definition of pre-emptive war, and the second tackles the requirements and the motivations of the preemptive war. While the second section which falls in two subsections is related to the role of the international organizations in defining these wars and their mechanisms. The first subsection is about the role of the League of Nations, and the .second is about the role of the United Nations in such wars

Protests and political violence among Arab Knesset members

ABSTRACTThis article seeks to understand the extent of Arab MKs’ involvement in protests and political violence over the past decade. By way of doing so, it will examine this phenomenon in four case studies: Mavi Marmara Flotilla (2010), Operation Pillar of cloud (2012), Operation Protective Edge (2014), and the passing of Israel’s Nation-State law in 2018. The findings reveal that, unlike many other protests in the Arab world, Arab Israeli protest in the examined case studies were neither based on economic inequality nor related to civil society issues but were rather a corollary of nationalist radicalisation. A dangerous trend of anti-Semitism was also detected among Israel’s Arab leaders.

Theorizing half-statelessness: a case study of the Nation-State Law in Israel

ABSTRACT In 2018, the state of Israeli citizenship completed a long-anticipated transformation. The passage of the Nation-State Law represented a formal and substantial reordering of the Israeli political sphere and the long-held contention that it prioritized democratic citizenship. Redefining the Israeli state in exclusively ethnic terms, the new law places its Palestinian citizenry in a precarious position, neither fully stateless, nor fully citizen, and in a state which dangerously approaches ‘inhuman.’ Drawing on the works of Jewish humanist philosopher, Hannah Arendt, we further develop the conceptual category to which she alludes in The Human Condition and Origins of Totalitarianism – ‘half-statelessness.’ Applying Arendt’s arguments to the Palestinian case, we deepen previous analyses of the new Basic Law and citizenship studies more broadly, demonstrating how Israeli citizenship’s continuous evolution has reached its legislative apex and produced a phenomenon which transcends the typical prototypes of citizen and state and effectively de-humanizes its Palestinian citizens.