Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Israel Bill Would Put Judaism Above Democracy

An Israeli lawmaker on Monday submitted a highly controversial proposal that would make Judaism superior to democracy in the State of Israel, amending a previous bill that was tossed by the Knesset before the last general election.

Coalition Chairman MK Yariv Levin (Likud) presented his formulation for a new Israeli basic law, one that obligates the courts to prioritize the state’s Jewish identity in rulings that address issues of religion and state.

Levin decided to revive another bill, but has added to it a number of highly controversial provisions. Levin’s formulation grants – for the first time – legal status to the term “the land of Israel” and the (exclusive) Jewish affinity to it.

“The land of Israel is the historical birthplace of the Jewish people and the place of the establishment of the State of Israel,” the proposal states. No other nationalities or religions are mentioned in this context, which continues, “The right to realize national self-definition in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.”

For more, go to Haaretz

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.