If Israel is Jewish, it cannot be democratic, because of the
lack of equality; if it’s democratic, it cannot be Jewish, because a
democracy does not bestow privilege based on ethnicity. But now the
nation-state law makes it plain. Israel is for Jews only, on the books.
By Gideon Levy: The Knesset is about to legislate one of its most important laws ever, and the one most in keeping with reality. The nation-state law will
put an end to Israel’s vague nationalism and present Zionism as it is.
The law will also put an end to the farce about Israel being “Jewish and democratic,”
a combination that never existed and could never exist because of the
inherent contradiction between the two values that cannot be reconciled,
except by deception.
If the state is Jewish, it cannot be democratic,
because of the lack of equality; if it’s democratic, it cannot be
Jewish, because a democracy does not bestow privilege based on
ethnicity. So now the Knesset has decided: Israel is Jewish. Israel is
declaring that it is the nation-state of the Jewish people, not a state
of its citizens, not a state of the two peoples that live within it, and
has therefore ceased to be an egalitarian democracy, not just in
practice but also in theory. That’s why this law is so important. It is a
truthful law.
'All those years of hypocrisy were pleasant. It
was nice to say that apartheid was only in South Africa'
