{"id":9381,"date":"2018-08-14T12:24:18","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T12:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohelet.org.il\/article\/basic-truths-about-the-basic-law\/"},"modified":"2018-08-14T12:24:18","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T12:24:18","slug":"basic-truths-about-the-basic-law","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/basic-truths-about-the-basic-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Basic Truths About The Basic Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"article-top-box-data-teaser\">Israel properly does not compare itself to neighboring regimes.<\/h2>\nThe Nation-State Basic Law brings with it serious threats to democracy. One of the consequences of the law may be the de facto disenfranchisement of not just some, but most Israel citizens.\n\nThis is not because of any provision in the Basic Law. Read the law; it does not increase or diminish the rights of any Israeli citizen. It is a modest measure that would be uncontroversial if it were passed in any other country, or by any other government.\n\nBut the critics of the new constitutional provision have turned to the Supreme Court, asking them to overturn a constitutional provision \u2013 for being unconstitutional. This makes no sense; any American constitutional lawyer would find the notion of an unconstitutional constitution ridiculous.\n\nThe Supreme Court is most likely not going to strike down the Basic Law, but if it even claims the authority to consider challenges to constitutional provisions, it will set itself up as a supreme authority that is above even Basic Law. This will put it above any checks and balances; it will be a true judicial coup with consequences that make Aharon Barak\u2019s innovations seem minor.\n\nThe Basic Law is now part of Israel\u2019s constitutional law. As such, it is fundamental. The Supreme Court, whose own existence and authority is determined by Basic Laws, has no authority to review it. As Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers, constitutional measures are \u201cin fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as a fundamental law.\u201d Any attempt by the Court to review the merits of the law, or examine it in relation to any principles beyond what is contained in it, should be considered entirely illegitimate and lead to the sharpest constitutional crisis.\n\nThe Court should not say one word about the merits of the Basic Law. But that is a valid subject for public debate \u2013 and that debate has seen some gross misrepresentations. This law did not emerge suddenly from a right-wing government. It has been debated and refined over a seven-year period in the Knesset. The opposition to it is purely political. The opportunism of the critics can be seen by the fact that some of them supported even stronger versions of this law when it was introduced.\n\nOpponents of the law show the need for it, because they seek to deny the Jewish people the national rights exercised by people in liberal democracies around the world. Apparently, the Jewish people\u2019s right to self-determination in a nation-state, the centerpiece of secular Zionist thought, is an idea that is only acceptable when kept silent.\n\nMost nations only have one official language, the primary one spoken in the country \u2013 even when there are substantial minorities with different native languages. Israel is the only country in the world where Hebrew is the primary language. To deny Israel the right to treat Hebrew the same way other countries treat their primary languages is simply to deny it equal standing in the community of nations.\n\nThe basic Zionist values articulated by this law have been supported by every government since the creation of the State of Israel. Israel as the home of Jewish self-determination; the importance of Jewish settlement throughout the land \u2013 these are the values of Ben-Gurion, who called for the settlement of millions of Jews in the Negev.\n\nIronically, the loudest critics of the law are those that are most eager to infringe on individual rights in the name of Jewish statehood. They expelled thousands of Jews from their homes because they said we need to do so to have a Jewish state. They wish to expel hundreds of thousands more \u2013 because they say they we want a Jewish state. What is the meaning of a Jewish self-determination if it cannot be articulated as a positive value, only as an excuse for expulsion?\n\nSome critics object to the law not because of what is in it, but because of what is not. But their argument is disingenuous. Indeed, Meretz has challenged the Basic Law in court based on the existing protection of equality \u2013 and then turn around and say there is no constitutional protection of equality.\n\nPeople talk broadly of \u201cequality,\u201d but no one knows what \u201cequality\u201d means. Does it mean the Law of Return is unconstitutional? Does it mean that those who serve the nation in the Army, such as our brothers the Druze, are not eligible for veterans\u2019 benefits? Does it mean that the exemption of Arabs from compulsory\u00a0 from military service is unconstitutional? It can mean all of those things \u2013 and none of them. Without an agreement on what equality means in Knesset and society, including such a provision is simply writing a blank check to the Supreme Court to decide the most contentious social issues based purely on their opinion. That is undemocratic, and that is why it was not done.\n\nNothing imperils the status quo for Israel\u2019s minorities than the suggestions cynically tossed around by the law\u2019s opponents.\n\nI must say a terrible word, because the critics have cynically used it in relation to the law: Apartheid. This debases the meaning and memory of Apartheid, and is as disgusting as Nazi analogies, which we know have no place in political discussions. The law does not give any group special access to public facilities. It does not change the full political and electoral rights of Israeli citizens of all ethnic groups. If this is apartheid, the word is meaningless. Indeed, the same \u201cright-wing\u201d parties that supported this law passed a historic 10- to 15-billion-shekel development plan for Arab communities.\n\nIsrael properly does not compare itself to neighboring regimes. But we know that the constitution adopted by the Palestinian Authority declares their entity to be Palestinian in character; with Arabic as the official language, and Islam as the official religion. If this is apartheid, why are the opponents of the law so eager to create an apartheid state?\n\nThis article originally appears in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/Opinion\/Basic-truths-about-the-Basic-Law-564697\">The Jerusalem Post.<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The basic Zionist values articulated by this law have been supported by every government since the creation of the State of Israel. Israel as the home of Jewish self-determination; the importance of Jewish settlement throughout the land \u2013 these are the values of Ben-Gurion, who called for the settlement of millions of Jews in the Negev.","protected":false},"featured_media":9382,"template":"","article-category":[525],"custom-tags":[649,544],"ppma_author":[60],"class_list":["post-9381","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","article-category-publications","custom-tags-basic-law","custom-tags-nation-state"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Basic Truths About The Basic Law - kohelet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/basic-truths-about-the-basic-law\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Basic Truths About The Basic Law - kohelet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The basic Zionist values articulated by this law have been supported by every government since the creation of the State of Israel. 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