In her first address in an American synagogue since becoming a Member of the Knesset, Aida Touma-Sliman ripped into the new Jewish Nation State Law, which she said normalized discrimination and Jewish supremacy, and finally dispensed with equality as a normative value of Israel. “I meet a lot of Jews back home who say we need a Jewish State as an insurance policy, in case something goes wrong,” she told the audience at Temple Israel of New Rochelle. “But why should I pay the price of your insurance policy?”

Uri Davis writes Israel’s Nation State Law is exactly in tune with the values outlined during Israel’s founding. In fact the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel passed in 1948 never established a principle of equality or respect of national or ethnic origin.

Ahmed Abu Artema, one of the original founders and organizers of the Great Return March, writes: “The idea of One State is aligned with the spirit of our time. The global consciousness has evolved away from the idea of nationalism toward one of citizenship. Millions of Arabs today are citizens in Europe and America who enjoy the same rights as all other citizens of those countries. Why can’t Jews live in Palestine in exactly the same way – on the basis of citizenship and not of Occupation?”

Adalah’s General Director, Attorney Hassan Jabareen offers a probing analysis of the “Basic Law: The Jewish Nation-State,” which, he argues, calls for a shift in how one conceptualizes the Israeli regime on both sides of the Green Line. He contends the Israeli regime faces questions about its legitimacy following the enactment of this racist legislation.

Yesterday, tens of thousands protested Israel’s ‘Nation-State’ law in Tel Aviv, and the rare sight was the many Palestinian flags being waved. They are in clear opposition to the Israeli Nation-State of the Jewish People law, which states: “The flag of the state is white, two blue stripes near the edges, and a blue Star of David in the center”.

“It was the first time that the Palestinian community moved in buses from our towns and villages to the middle of a Jewish center, Tel Aviv, to challenge the public discourse in Israel,” Jafir Farah of Mossawa center says of massive demonstration on August 11 that united Jews and Palestinians in solidarity against the new nation state of the Jewish people law.

WNYC host Brian Lehrer rationalizes Israel’s nation-state law by saying that Israel under Netanyahu is in the same pickle as the U.S. under Trump. While guest Rabbi Farber says that the Israeli army is a “moral armed services… committed to preserving life.”

The new Israeli nation-state law makes racism “the national character,” foreign policy maven David Rothkopf says, and Israel is no longer in his heart. “American Jews have gone from a duty to support Israel to a duty to oppose Israel,” he writes.

Salim Joubran, the first Palestinian justice on the Israeli Supreme Court (2004-2017), earlier this year derided the law the Israeli parliament passed this month declaring Israel the nation state of the Jewish people.
“This law is a very, very, very bad law for the state of Israel… The only thing is to cause damages to the Arab population.”

A bad disease requires a strong cure, Hatim Kanaaneh writes. Israel’s nation state of the Jewish people law is legal apartheid, and it requires Palestinian politicians and civil society to rise up and say, We seek a democratic binational state between the river and the sea.