Israel’s top court upholds Jewish nation-state law

Israel’s highest court on Thursday upheld a controversial nation-state law that defines Israel as the home of the Jewish people, but which critics said discriminated against Israel’s Arabs minority.

Ten out of 11 justices on the High Court of Justice ruled to deny 15 petitions challenging what’s known as the Basic Law on Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, which the Knesset passed in 2018.

The law, which was backed by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, holds that the right of national self-determination in Israel is “unique to the Jewish people.” It also enshrines Hebrew as Israel’s official language and defines Jewish settlements as “a national value.”

In its verdict, the court said the law is “intended to anchor the components of the identity of the state as a Jewish state, without diminishing from the components of the state’s democratic identity.” The court’s majority, however, conceded that “it would have been better if the principle of equality had been explicitly enshrined” in the Basic Law.

The only Arab justice on the court, George Kara, said in his dissenting opinion that the law violates the principle of equality against Israeli Arabs, who make up around 20% of the country, as well as Druze citizens of Israel.

Adalah, a Palestinian rights group that filed one of the petitions, described the law as establishing a constitutional identity that “completely excludes those who do not belong to the majority group” and “enshrines Jewish supremacy and racial segregation as foundational principles of the State of Israel.”

Israeli Justice Minister Gideon Saar, who runs the right-wing New Hope party, hailed the court’s decision as one that “anchors the essence and character of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people” and does “no harm to the individual rights of any Israeli citizen.”