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In world politics, Jewish state is a characterization of Israel as the Nation state and sovereign homeland for the Jewish people. Supporters of a Jewish state are called Zionists.
Since its establishment, Israel has passed many laws which reflect on the Jewish identity and values of the majority (about 75% in 2016) of its citizens. The secular-versus-religious debate in Israel in particular has focused debate on the Jews nature of the state; another aspect of the debate is the status of minorities in Israel, most notably that of the Arab-Israeli population.
In pre-modern times, the religious laws of Judaism defined a number of prerogatives for a Halachic state. (2025). 9789400740358, Springer. ISBN 9789400740358 When Theodor Herzl wrote Der Judenstaat ("The Jewish State") in 1896 which birthed the Jewish movement of Zionism, he envisioned a state based on European models, which included religious institutions under the aegis of the state. In order to avoid alienating the Ottoman Sultan, there was no explicit reference to a Jewish state by the Zionist Organization that he founded. The phrase "national home" was used intentionally instead of "state".
The 1942 Biltmore Program of the Zionist Organization explicitly proposed "that Palestine be established as a Jewish Commonwealth". In 1946, the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, also known as the Grady–Morrison Committee, noted that the demand for a Jewish state went beyond the obligations of either the Balfour Declaration or the British Mandate, and had been expressly disowned by the chairman of the Jewish Agency as recently as 1932. Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. Chapter V: the Jewish Attitude
The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, which brought the British Mandate to an end in 1948, referred to a "Jewish state" and an "Arabs state" in its plans for land allotment.
The term Jewish state has been in common usage in the media since the establishment of Israel, and the term has also been used interchangeably with Israel. George W. Bush used the term in his speeches and in an exchange of letters with Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon in 2004. Exchange of letters between PM Sharon and President Bush Barack Obama has also used the phrase, for instance in a speech in September 2010 to the United Nations General Assembly.Remarks by the President to the United Nations General Assembly, 23 September 2010 [3] The Israeli government under prime minister Ehud Olmert made the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state by the State of Palestine a pre-condition in the peace negotiations, as did the government of his successor, Benjamin Netanyahu. Palestinians regard the demand for Jewish-state recognition as a trap—a new demand that did not come up during years of negotiations in the 1990s or in peace treaties reached with Egypt and with Jordan. The Palestine Liberation Organization recognized the State of Israel as part of the Oslo Accords in 1993. Palestinians regard acceptance of the demand as giving up their right of return.Washington Post, 2 October 2010: Defining 'Jewish state': For many, term has different meanings
On 19 July 2018, with a vote of 62 to 55 (2 abstained), the Knesset adopted a new Basic Law that . "Final text of Jewish nation-state law, approved by the Knesset early on July 19", The Times of Israel "Israel passes controversial ‘Jewish nation-state’ law", Al Jazeera
The concept of a national homeland for the Jewish people is enshrined in Israeli national policy and reflected in many of Israel's public and national institutions. The concept was adopted in the Israeli Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948 as the objective of the establishment of modern Israel. The principle was given legal effect in the Law of Return, which was passed by the Knesset on 5 July 1950, and stated: "Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an aliyah." Text of Law of Return This was modified in 1970 to include non-Jews with a Jewish grandparent, and their spouses.
Secular Zionism, the historically dominant stream, is rooted in a concept of the Jews as a people that have a right to self-determination. Another reason sometimes submitted for such establishment was to have a state where Jews would not be afraid of antisemitism attacks and live in peace. But such a reason is not a requirement of the self-determination right and so is subsidiary to it in secular Zionist thinking.
Partisans of the first view are predominantly, though by no means exclusively, secular or less traditional. Partisans of the second view are almost exclusively traditional or Orthodox, although they also include supporters who follow other streams of Judaism or are less traditional but Conservatism and would not object to a more prominent state role in promoting Jewish beliefs—although not to the point of creating a purely Halachic state.
The debate is therefore characterized by significant polarities. Secular and religious Zionists argue passionately about what a Jewish state should represent. Post-Zionism and Zionists argue about whether a Jewish state should exist at all. Because Israel was created within the sphere of international law as the instrument for Jewish self-determination, these polarities are captured by the questions: should Israel maintain and strengthen its status as a state for the Jewish people, or transition to being a state purely for "all of its citizens", or identify as both? And, if both, how to resolve any tensions that arise from their coexistence. To date, Israel has steered a course between secularism and Jewish identity, usually depending on who controls the Israeli High Court of Justice.
On 19 November 2008, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni addressed the United Jewish Communities General Assembly in Jerusalem. In her speech, she announced: "These two goals of Israel as a Jewish and a democratic state must coexist and not contradict each other. So, what does that mean, a Jewish state? It is not only a matter of the number of Jews who live in Israel. It is not just a matter of numbers but a matter of values. The Jewish state is a matter of values, but it is not just a matter of religion, it is also a matter of nationality. And a Jewish state is not a monopoly of rabbis. It is not. It is about the nature of the State of Israel. It is about Jewish tradition. It is about Jewish history, regardless of the question of what each and every Israeli citizen does in his own home on Saturdays and what he does on the Jewish holidays. We need to maintain the nature of the State of Israel, the character of the State of Israel, because this is the raison d'être of the State of Israel." Address by FM Livni to the UJC GA Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 19 November 2008
Theorists who ask these questions focus on the future of the State of Israel and realize that although the sovereign political state has been established, there is still much work to be done in relation to the state's identity. The State of Israel in Halachic Thought by Gerald J. Blidstein (WZO)
A poll commissioned by the Israel Democracy Institute in 2007 found that 75% of would support a constitution that maintained Israel as a Jewish and democratic state with equal minority rights. Among the 507 people who participated in the poll, some 75 percent said they would agree with such a definition while 23 percent said they would oppose it. Poll of Arab-Israelis
In the course of the Cold War, the Soviet Union, its satellite states and agencies, as well as many African, Asian and Arab states, presented the concept of Zionism and the Jewish state as an embodiment of racism, imperialism and colonialism. In 1975, the UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, which equated Zionism with racism, was passed by a vote of 72 to 35. It was partially revoked by UN General Assembly Resolution 4686 in 1991 by a vote of 111 to 25.
Linguistics and political commentator Noam Chomsky makes a distinction between the concept of "a Jewish ethnic homeland in Palestine" and that of "a Jewish state" in his interview on C-SPAN, saying that he has always supported a Jewish ethnic homeland in Palestine, which is different from a Jewish state. He says that there is a strong case to be made for an ethnic homeland, but he has always been opposed to a Jewish state, for the same reasons he would be opposed to "a Christian state, or a White people state, or an Islamic republic". Chomsky believes the concept of a Jewish State (or Muslim, Christian or White State) directly contradicts the concept of a democratic state as it is understood in the Western tradition, because liberal democracy is founded upon a principle in which there is no privileged citizen.
To many Arab and Muslim leaders, following the popular usage in their communities, even referring to Israel by its proper name has political and cultural implications, resulting in use of such as "the Zionist entity".
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