Basic Law Proposal

The purpose of this law is to protect, through legislation of a Basic Law, Israel’s status as the state of the Jewish people. This protection will be equal to the protection granted to the State’s democratic character and to human rights by Israel’s existing Basic Laws. This will complete, in the Basic Law legislation framework, the integration of those values that characterize Israel’s path as a Jewish and democratic state, in the spirit of the principles of the Declaration of Independence.

The State of Israel is a democratic state which is committed to civil and human rights. At the same time, Israel also has a special purpose as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Supreme Court President Shimon Agranat expressed this well when he wrote: “There can be no doubt – and this is made clear in the statements made when the establishment of the State was declared – that not only is Israel a sovereign and independent State that supports freedom and whose government is based on the rule of the people, it was also established as a Jewish state in the land of Israel; that the act of its establishment was done primarily in accordance with the natural and historical right of the Jewish people to live as all other nations, independently, in its sovereign country, and that this act served as the realization of the aspiration held for many generations, for the redemption of Israel . . . . [This is] a basic constituting fact which no authority whatsoever of the State may ever . . . deny in its exercise of any of its powers. Since, if this is not said . . . the significance will be an absolute rejection of the history of the Jewish people and of its aspirations . . . ” (HCJ 1/65 Yardor v. Chairman of the Central Elections Committee for the Sixth Knesset, [1965] IsrSC 19(3) 365, at p. 385). Since these remarks were made, the Knesset has enacted Basic Laws regarding the protection of human rights and Israeli democracy, and it did so in order to anchor those protections within its Basic Law system. Thus, it is also necessary that Israel’s set of Basic Laws should include the protection of Israel’s values as the state of the Jewish people, giving such protection equal status.

This Basic Law will also anchor the State of Israel’s deep commitment to the Jews of the Diaspora. Israel sees itself as a nation-state which is designated to include within it all the Jews in the world who wish to immigrate to it, and as one which is committed to all of world Jewry as they are. Claims are sometimes heard, with respect to the most recent generation, that this connection is becoming weaker. There are those who see a decline in the sense of a connection between Israel and Diaspora Jewry, both among Israelis and among young Diaspora Jews. This Basic Law, which anchors the Zionist principles of the State of Israel as the state of the entire Jewish people, will renew this historical alliance between .the totality of world Jewry, and will strengthen the connection between Diaspora Jewry and Israel and the connection between Israelis and the Jews of the Diaspora

Beyond the legal aspect described above – the need for the Basic Law: Israel as the National Home of the Jewish People, becomes even more important during these times, in which demands are being made to annul the Jewish people’s right to a national home in its land, and the recognition of the State of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people. The State of Israel – which demands that its opponents recognize it as the state of the Jewish people, and which asks its supporters through the world to support this demand – must be ready to declare, though its highest legislative expression, that the State itself is willing to carry this identity proudly. A Basic Law such as this will also have a significant educational impact .within the State itself

The first clause anchors, in a Basic Law, Israel’s exclusive status as the nation-state of the Jewish people. This clause also establishes that all of Israeli law should be interpreted in light of this principle, as the Court has already established that all of Israeli law must be interpreted in light of the principles of the human rights established in the Basic Law: Human Rights and Dignity. (FH Cri 2316/95 Ganimat v. State of Israel [1995] IsrSC 49(4) 589). This clause is therefore not intended to grant preference to this Basic Law over Basic Laws that deal with human rights, but only to ensure equal status for this Basic Law, as compared to those other Basic Laws. This Basic Law sets out the practical aspects that express the fact that the State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people. Some of these are already expressed in existing legislation: the State symbols (anthem, flag and symbol), Jerusalem as its capital, its official language, the right of return, the ingathering of the exiles, Jewish settlement, connection with Diaspora Jewry, the Jewish calendar and the holy sites.

Other draft laws that are basically similar have been placed before the eighteenth Knesset by MK Avraham Dichter and a group of other MK’s (Private/3541/18) and by MK Aryeh Eldad (Private/4096/18); before the nineteenth Knesset by MK’s Shaked, Levin and Ilatov (Private 1550/19), and by MK Ze’ev Elkin (Private 2502/19); and before the twentieth Knesset by MK Sharon Gal and a group of other MK’s (Private/1320/20).