The High Court of Justice upheld the Nation-State Law on Thursday, as the justices voted 10-1 to reject 15 petitions against the law. They had been asked to determine if the law was fit to be a part of Israel’s future constitution, given its content.
In explaining the verdict, the High Court said it was not within its purview to order the law be canceled or be involved in its content as a basic law. Regarding the intent of the law, the court said it is to establish the Jewish character of the state without diminishing its democratic nature.
The law is “another component of Israel’s emerging constitution that 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 that are anchored in the other Basic Laws and constitutional principles that institute the legal system in Israel,” the court said in its opinion.
Justice George Karra, the lone dissenter, said some parts of the law challenge Israel’s democratic nature. The law ignores Arab and Druze citizens of Israel and harms the principle of equality, which is not explicitly established in the law, he wrote in the minority opinion.
Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar (New Hope) said the Nation-State Law is an important law that sets the essence and character of Israel as a nation-state of the Jewish people. The High Court did the right thing by rejecting the petitions because the law does not harm the individual rights of Israeli citizens, he said.
Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked (Yamina), a former justice minister, praised the ruling but said she was disturbed that the court even discussed the possibility of overturning the Basic Law.
“Removing the authority of the nation to set the character and identity of the State of Israel in the name of legal values would remove the basis of our democratic process,” she said.
Joint List MK Ahmed Tibi said the Nation-State Law makes Jews superior in a racist manner. The court’s decision not to overturn the law makes Israel discriminatory, he said.
“The High Court of Justice almost never helps the Palestinian minority in Israel on issues that go to the heart of their rights as a minority,” Tibi said. “The High Court failed once again to prevent the harm caused by the inequality of Israel’s ethno-democratic regime.”
NGO Adalah, a legal center for Arab minority rights in Israel, said the law “enshrines Jewish supremacy and racial segregation as foundational principles of the State of Israel.”
“This law is illegitimate and violates absolute prohibitions of international law,” it said. “Although Adalah explicitly noted such international law violations in the petition that we filed on behalf of the Palestinian Arab leadership in Israel, the attorney-general and the Knesset decided to ignore and disregard these violations in their responses to the case.”
The Nation-State Law, passed as a Basic Law, was heavily criticized for delineating Jewish national rights and symbols, including the importance of “Jewish settlement,” but without any language guaranteeing the equality of all citizens, especially minorities.
Advocates of the bill argued that equality for all citizens is legislated in Israel’s Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom, while there had been no previous laws delineating Israel’s Jewish character.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.