A Palestinian professor whom I cited yesterday in this post regarding Israel’s new declaration of loyalty legislation has asked me to post these intriguing clarifications.
“The Jewish State” is defined by and was established by means of Israel’s Declaration of Establishment in 1948, which acts as a sort of preamble to Israel’s basic laws. The Declaration however does not compel Israel’s Jewish or non-Jewish citizens (or anyone else) to recognize this or its other historical narratives. That would go against the spirit of the Declaration, which essentially affords Israel’s citizens the ability and right to remain silent on the issue (and even contradict and oppose the historical narrative in the Declaration).
In the contemporary struggle between Netanyahu and Lieberman for leadership of the right in Israel, both seek to make this notion not something declared by the Jewish leadership upon the establishment of Israel but something declared by Palestinians as well as Arab citizens of Israel; but at the same time maintaining the status quo that allows Jews to remain silent on or contradict the Declaration. So they want to restrict the rights afforded by the Declaration to Jews only.
In that regard it is well understood that both Natenyahu and Lieberman are using such demands to indefinitely delay the formation of a Palestinian state and withdrawal back to Israel’s 1967 international borders as well as entertain fantasies about the expulsion of Israel’s Arab citizens.
But why do they seek to maintain the status quo that allows Jews to remain silent on or contradict the Declaration? Because, they cannot conceivably reconcile the right of all Jews to live as citizens in Israel with a requirement that all these Jews recognize Israel as the Jewish state defined in the Declaration of Establishment. For example, Jewish religious authorities do not explicitly recognize this, nor does their congregation. They have different ideas regarding Israel and these are not consistent with the Declaration of Establishment: Further, the traditional secular (shrinking) majority in Israel rejects the rabbinical notion of the nature of Israel. Not to mention that there are Jews happily living as citizens in Israel who reject the Declaration for leftist liberal reasons.
Thus, Jews are not and will never be required to declare loyalty or even acceptance of Israel’s Jewishness in accordance to the Declaration or in accordance to any other conception. Even, Ehud Barak’s recent insistence that non-Jews declare loyalty to the Jewish State as conceived in the Declaration was rejected.
There is, however, almost unanimity among Jews in israel that though they themselves will not be encumbered with recognizing Israel’s nature in any way; non-Jews, in particular Palestinians, should recognize and even define Israel as a Jewish state. It is as though internal tensions regarding Israel’s nature are being diverted to outsiders.
We the Palestinians will have nothing to do with this and understand fully well that the Declaration of Establishment at the very least allows us to remain mute regarding Israel’s nature. As it allows Jewish israelis to remain mute on this issue and does not compel anyone to recognize Israel beyond being a state like any other sovereign state.
