Now is the time to scrap the awful and racist ‘Nation-State’ law

It should not take the tragedy of 12 innocent Israeli Druze children being murdered (and many more seriously wounded) by Hezbollah to cause some serious soul-searching in Israeli society. This soul-searching should not only be about the apparent abandonment of the north since last October and the general passive response to Iranian-backed Hezbollah’s terror, its murder of our citizens, and the wanton destruction of the sovereign north of our country. It should also be about our legal treatment of our Druze brothers and sisters.

Our Druze Israeli citizens are far more patriotic and Zionist than some of our Jewish citizens. They honor and respect their mandatory draft to the IDF, which their leaders requested from Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion back in 1948 (again, in stark contrast to some Jews in our homeland). They serve with distinction in the best units of the IDF and have paid the ultimate price with a disproportionate number of fallen in all of our conflicts, including the current war in Gaza. This community loves Israel with a passion.

As a tour guide and Jewish educator, I have taken many groups to Druze towns in Israel. Visitors are amazed at the warmth, hospitality and patriotism of this wonderful community. I serve with Druze soldiers in the current war in Gaza, and to a person they are “salt of the earth” types who are always the first to volunteer, have positive attitudes toward their service, and bring honor both to themselves and to their community. One of my Druze friends even told me that he wraps himself with the Israeli flag when he returns from visits abroad!

The “Nation-State” law, passed five years ago in 2018, has been hugely controversial since its inception. While its supporters claim it strengthens the Jewish character of the state, its detractors, including the Druze community, say that it was an unnecessary provocation, and that the relegation of Arabic from an official language to one of “special status” was particularly discriminatory against one fifth of the citizens of Israel. As I wrote in my “For the Sake of Zion” book:

It is important to acknowledge that with all of Israel’s incredible successes in many fields since its creation, there are issues that Israel is grappling with as it continues to stride into the 21st century. The problems that the Jewish State faces include topics as far-ranging as: security, religion, society, environment, water, education and how to harmoniously co-exist with a minority population.

Now is the time to scrap this vile and hateful law that was passed by a slim minority to pander to the fringe far right xenophobic Jewish extremists! It is deeply insulting to our fanatically loyal Druze brethren, as indeed it is to our entire non-Jewish minority. As we Jews have been a minority for centuries of exile, it is incumbent upon us to be mindful and compassionate regarding the treatment of our own minority within our Jewish homeland. We need to treat them with kindness, toleration and of course complete equality. As our own Declaration of Independence so unequivocally states:

The state of Israel…will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.