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"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)
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On April 28, 2023 I published my most recent OpEdNews column, "The Current Israeli Constitutional Crisis: What it is Really About." It dealt in part with the definition of "what an Israeli citizen is" that is contained in the Israeli Declaration of Independence. (Israel does not have a constitution.) Shortly thereafter, on a listserv of which I am a member, I received a posting of a column written by the left-of-center Israeli journalist Gershon Baskin. It was published in The Jerusalem Post on April 30, 2023. I found it quite remarkable in that it concerned the formation of a new Israeli political party (and Israel does not lack for political parties[!]) called "All of its Citizens." A significant section of the announcement of the new party quoted below (in italics) focuses on the clause in the Declaration that I had discussed in my previous column. Here is an extensive excerpt from Mr. Baskin's column.
"The success of the public uprising against the so-called judicial reforms [of the present government] cannot be considered complete if Israel simply returns to the status quo prior to the last elections. Israel was not a true democracy [even] before this government was formed and began to dismantle the basic contours of democracy [which are]: The independence of the judiciary; the separation of powers; checks and balances on powers of the government; the ability of the legislature to oversee the government; the freedom of the press; the protection of the rights of minorities; free speech; freedom to organize; and the most fundamental - equality of all of the citizens.
"Israel, before the forming of our current government, had only two independent branches of government - the executive and the judicial. The legislative branch of Israel's government ceased to be independent long ago and unlike the US Congress, the Knesset has no real ability to oversee the work of the executive branch. . . . .
"But, more important than all of the above, Israel, the so-called Jewish democratic state was, in reality - as MK Ahmad Tibi [Member of the Knesset] so aptly defined it - democratic for Jews and Jewish for Arabs. There has never been genuine equality between the Jewish and Arab citizens of the State of Israel and there is no law guaranteeing the equality of all Israelis. . . .
"ISRAEL'S DECLARATION of Independence, which so many people in the protest movements are referring to, can certainly be seen as a declaration of intent and values by the nation's founders. That document clearly stated that they believed the Jewish people deserved to have a Jewish nation-state. But they also made very clear statements about the democratic nature of the state.
"It said [italics added, for this one and the next three paragraphs]: 'The State of Israel will focus on the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants: It will be founded on the foundations of freedom, justice and peace in the light of the vision of the prophets of Israel; maintain full equality of social and political rights for all its citizens without distinction of religion, race and gender; guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; protect the holy places of all religions; and be faithful to the principles of the United Nations Charter. . . .' . . . .
"In its founding document, the new Party says that: '[We make a] Commitment to the enactment of a civil and democratic constitution that will preserve the rights of every citizen, and the rights of every community, regardless of religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, or any other difference. We commit to an uncompromising fight against violence and against all those who seek to deny or eliminate the rights and freedoms of the other.
" 'We believe that only such a foundation can put an end to the reality of inequality and resulting "Jewish national superiority." Together we will make Israel a country which is a democracy that belongs to all its citizens and to all its communities, a healthy and prosperous society which respects every individual and every community, [with a] commitment to the enactment of a civil and democratic constitution that will preserve the rights of every citizen, and the rights of every community, regardless of religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, or any other difference. We commit to an uncompromising fight against violence and against all those who seek to deny or eliminate the rights and freedoms of the other.'
"The new party has not made a determination yet on the best solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it does state: 'Uncompromising commitment to ending the occupation, to sustainable peace and for a just political settlement agreed upon by the two national communities. The peace arrangements will be based on human rights, on full equality for every person and every community between the Jordan and the sea.' " [End of the lengthy excerpt from Mr. Baskin's column .]
I think that it is quite remarkable that finally there is a political party that traces its roots and reason-for-being back to that statement in the Declaration. On the 50th Anniversary of Israel's founding, in 1997, I received a copy of the Declaration, in Hebrew, which had been produced by The New Israel Fund, Washington, D.C. I had first been referred to the Declaration some years earlier by my father, Prof. Harold J. Jonas. As it happened, Dad had played a role in the mostly unsuccessful attempted rescues of Jews from Europe in the 1930's. Of course, it was the emigration of the survivors of the Holocaust in Europe to Palestine after the war that was a central factor leading to the founding of the State of Israel.
As it also happens, the 50th Anniv. New Israel Fund printed-in-color reproduction of the Declaration has only one section translated into English. It is the one, quoted above that defines "who is an Israeli." That indeed is how the existence of that clause first came to my notice. The document, in a frame, hangs of the wall of my study. I am just thrilled with the formation of this new Party, grounded as it is in that most important part of the Declaration.
(Article changed on May 02, 2023 at 11:45 AM EDT)
(Article changed on May 02, 2023 at 6:54 PM EDT)
