nation-state law

Simon KAPWEPWE (standing), Foreign Minister of Zambia, addressing the Seminar on Apartheid, Racial Discrimination and Colonialism. 4/Aug/1967 (UN Photo)

Unlike South Africa, the world is giving Israel a pass on apartheid

A UN Security Council resolution rejecting South Africa’s 1983 constitution shows that there is precedent and necessity to act against Israel’s Nation-State Law. In a referendum on November 2, 1983, White voters in apartheid South Africa approved a new constitution to restructure their political system. In addition to consolidating executive power with the presidency, a tricameral parliament…

By Amjad Iraqi July 26, 2019

Palestinian and Israeli peace activists march in central Jerusalem on October 17, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Why the Israeli Left can’t reconcile with the most Zionist law

For seven decades, those on the Zionist Left have been reluctant to grapple with Israel’s history of discrimination against its Palestinian minority. With the Jewish Nation-State Law, they have no choice — and that’s what really hurts. By Meron Rapoport It is difficult, if not impossible, to find Palestinians who support Israel’s new Jewish Nation-State Law.…

By +972 Magazine August 2, 2018

Thousands of young Jewish boys wave Israeli flags as they celebrate Jerusalem Day at the Western Wall, May 17, 2015. (Flash90)

How one law exposes what Israel has always tried to hide

From the moment it was established, Israel granted its Jewish citizens privileges at the expense of Palestinians. The ‘nation-state bill’ reveals the choice Israelis have to make about the future of their country. Years ago, American journalist Ted Koppel hosted a fascinating televised debate between Rabbi Meir Kahane, the far-right anti-Arab leader, and Ehud Olmert, then a fresh-faced Knesset member…

By Orly Noy July 12, 2018

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Right-wing demonstrators protest in front of a demonstration against the Israeli attack on Gaza, in Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, July 26, 2014. Right-wing activists protested nearby and attacked left-wing activists during and after the protest. One left-wing activists was hospitalized with a head injury. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

When racism and segregation are perceived as ‘legitimate rights’

Protests against Arab families moving into Jewish cities are a reminder that until everyone is free to choose where they want to live, the Israeli regime will remain segregationist and racist at its core. By Suhad Bishara Jewish residents of the northern Israeli city of Afula protested last week against the sale of a home…

By Haokets June 21, 2018

Palestinian and Israeil flags (Activestills)

Defying racist legislation: New bill seeks to turn Israel into a true democracy

In the face of an onslaught of nationalist, anti-Arab laws, one lawmaker is proposing a simple alternative: transforming Israel into a state for all its citizens. A few years ago, my colleague Noam Sheizaf conducted a fascinating interview with the executive director of Adalah, Hassan Jabareen, in which the former raised the idea that the rise of…

By Orly Noy February 6, 2018

Thousands of Israeli Jews wave flags as they mark Jerusalem Day in Damascus Gate on their way to the Western Wall, East Jerusalem, May 24, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The slow death of Israeli citizenship

As the Right consolidates its power over nearly every sphere of Israeli politics, it is slowly turning citizenship into a matter of ideology. Non-Jewish citizens aren’t the only ones who will suffer. By Marzuq Al-Halabi The concept of citizenship in Israel has always suffered from significant inadequacies, whether due to the Law of Return or to…

By +972 Magazine October 15, 2017

Supporters of French president-elect Emmanuel Macron celebrate outside the Louvre in Paris, May 7, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

We’ll always have Paris

While the French gave the world a lesson in hope, democracy and standing up to fascism, the Israeli government advanced a childish, nationalistic law that declares: we are Jews, they are Arabs, we’re good, they’re bad. By Alon Mizrahi Europe and the world expect us to defend the spirit of the Enlightenment, under threat in…

By +972 Magazine May 8, 2017

Illustrative photo of a man wearing an Israeli flag at the Western Wall. (By Shutterstock.com / Robert Hoetink)

Does Israel have a place in Jewish identity?

The proposed ‘Nation-State Law’ and a wave of violence point to the urgency of questioning Israel’s place in Jewish identity. Shlomo Sand’s latest book, ‘How I Stopped Being a Jew,’ offers a starting point for such a discussion. When I left Palestine this summer, I was relieved to leave the Israeli flag behind. No more…

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat December 1, 2014

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking in front of Israeli flags, July 20, 2014. (Photo by Haim Zach / GPO)

The ‘Jewish Nation-State Law’: Turning liberal Zionism on its head

Cementing the supremacy of national group rights over individual minority rights upends the precarious balance between Jewish and democratic, upon which liberal Zionism relies. For the ‘Nation-State Law’s authors and political patrons, however, this is just the beginning. Liberal Zionists of all stripes tend to have one thing in common: the belief — or at…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man November 28, 2014