Title Information
Title
Constitutionalizing Ethnic Identity in Modern Democracy: The Case of the Israeli Nation-State Law
Abstract
In the early hours of Thursday, July 19th, 2018, the Israeli Knesset narrowly passed “Basic Law: Israel – The National State of the Jewish People” (hereafter: The Nation-State Law). The Law encompasses eleven short articles delineating the meaning and value of Israel’s Jewish identity. As the latest statement on Israel’s Jewish identity, the Law provides an invaluable opportunity to reflect on the past, present, and future of Israeli politics. Furthermore, its connections to international debates over the role of ethnic identity in modern democracy suggest that the Law might provide a useful point of comparison for these critical global issues. The Law’s domestic and international significance inspires this thesis’s central research questions: Why did the Nation-State Law come about? What are its implications for Israeli democracy? I argue that while the Law is best understood as the result of a complex multi-causal process, right-wing frustrations toward the High Court’s perceived liberal bias and interventionist tendencies can be identified as a particularly salient motivating factor. Concerns over the domestic and international delegitimization of Israel’s Jewish identity were an important secondary motivation. I also argue that the Law has been mostly ineffectual in both the legal and sociopolitical realms. The High Court has interpreted the Law as mostly declarative and thus inapplicable to most tangible policy questions. While the Law inspired substantial domestic and international condemnation, it failed to catalyze meaningful shifts in political behaviors or attitudes.
Name: Personal
Name Part
Harris, Zachary
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/cre")
creator
Name: Personal
Name Part
Tannenwald, Nina
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ths")
thesis advisor
Name: Personal
Name Part
Berman, Nathaniel
Role
Role Term
reader
Name: Corporate
Name Part
Brown University. Political Science
Role
Role Term: Text
sponsor
Origin Information
Copyright Date
2022
Type of Resource (primo)
text_resources
Physical Description
digitalOrigin
born digital
Language
Language Term: Text (ISO639-2B) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2.html", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2/eng")
English
Note: thesis
Senior thesis (AB)--Brown University, 2022
Note (displayLabel="Concentration")
Political Science
Genre (aat)
theses
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01033832")
Topic
Nationalism
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/00875797")
Topic
Constitutional law
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01204236")
Topic
Israel
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/")
Topic
constitution
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01207534")
Topic
Middle East--Palestine
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/")
Topic
Jewish history
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/00812220")
Topic
Arab-Israeli conflict
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/00871350")
Topic
Comparative law
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/00871353")
Topic
Comparative law--Legal research
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01774284")
Topic
Legislative histories
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01184468")
Topic
Zionism
Access Condition: use and reproduction
All rights reserved
Access Condition: rights statement (href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/")
In Copyright
Access Condition: restriction on access
All Rights Reserved
Identifier: DOI
10.26300/55vz-1g16