I have read the nation-state law over and over. As a veteran lawyer, I could not see what it was about the legislation that brought so many people to tears. I am beginning to believe that some of the law's critics have never even read it, that others have not done so in depth and still others have decided to use it for their own political ends, as is to be expected in an election year.
I am very sorry that some members of our dear Druze community have been dragged into the old familiar Israeli dispute between the Left and the Right. The fact that so many lawmakers on the Left voted against the legislation is significant. I cannot imagine Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion would have ever thought that his successors would deny the State of Israel was the nation-state of the Jewish people. Even those who reject the law in the name of Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky and late Likud founder and Prime Minister Menachem Begin deny their basic worldview when they behave as if the Jewishness of the state is incompatible with the value of equality.
Members of the Druze community are loyal to the state, serve in the Israel Defense Forces, have excellent education systems and live in wonderful communities. Members of the community hold senior positions in the government and in the IDF. The Druze, who for many years were forced to roam from Egypt to Lebanon, and from Lebanon to Syria, have found in our country a safe and secure home. They are citizens with equal rights. No one intends to harm those rights, and there is, therefore, no clear reason for the criticism.
The State of Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, and one of the world's enlightened democracies. There is no research institute or propagandist that could harm Israeli citizens' sense of liberty and freedom. There is no threat to democracy. The only risk is to the diminution of the Jewish character of the state, in particular in a day and age when any Jewish subject is deemed "religification," and diplomatic officials in the region and in Europe negate Israel's existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty has been recognized as constitutional. The law guarantees equality. The Supreme Court firmly and vigilantly stands guard on the matter. The nation-state law is aimed at creating a balance between Israel's Jewish and democratic characters.
The nation-state law is essentially a declarative law. Who can doubt the fact that the land of Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people, and unified Jerusalem is the state's capital? And the law ensures the Arabic language will maintain its special status. Of course, Hebrew here is the language of the state. While the settlement enterprise is at the heart of the Zionist vision, the law is not aimed at harming the rights of minorities to receive assistance in building their own communities or live in Jewish neighborhoods.
Opposition to the nation-state law is therefore clearly not aimed at protecting minorities but rather changing the very essence of the State of Israel.
