RELIGION AS LAW: THE ISRAELI-NATION STATE LAW AND THE PALESTINIANS. (Basic Law on Israel as a Nation State of the Jewish People 2018)

• Published date: 01 January 2020
• Author: Buetiner, Alexandria
• Date: 01 January 2020

INTRODUCTION

Yousef Munayyer had to travel 6,000 miles to meet his wife, who had lived 30 miles from him their entire lives. (1) When the couple decides to visit their families, they cannot fly into the same airport in Tel Aviv, although it is the closest to their hometowns. Instead, she must land in a different country, while her husband is permitted to fly into Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport. (2) Should they choose to land in the closest possible airport for Munayyer's wife, Israeli law still requires the couple take different bridges, located two hours apart, and answer a series of questions in order to be permitted to return to their childhood home together. (3)

Munayyer is an Arab Israeli citizen. His wife is not. (4) Their realities represent the sharp divide between Israelis and Palestinians. Although Munayyer is an Arab, he was fortunate enough to obtain Israeli citizenship by virtue of his birth in the city of Lod, instead of in the occupied West Bank. (5) Not all Palestinians are as lucky. Aside from the nearly 5 million Palestinian refugees eligible for aid from the United Nations, there are many more Palestinians living in the occupied territories of Israel who are subject to Israeli laws.

The passage of the Israeli Nation-State Law and the actions of current United States President Donald Trump will deeply impact the Palestinians and Palestinian refugees. (6) This note will first address the background of the Palestinian Refugee crisis and the creation of the State of Israel. I will then address the impact of Israel's Nation State law in conjunction with the growth of Israeli nationalism as well as address some, possible consequences, and steps to minimize these negative effects.

I. BACKGROUND: ONE LAND, TWO PEOPLES

The modern country of Israel was founded on May 14, 1948, but the history of the land within Israel's borders is much more complicated than it may appear. (7) The most influential movement in the creation of Israel was Zionism. (8) Zionism--specifically Political Zionism--contributed greatly to the influx of Jewish immigrants to Palestine during what is known as the British Mandatory Period (the "British Mandate"). (9)

A. The British Mandatory Period

Following World War I ("WWI"), the League of Nations created the mandatory system, which split the former colonies of Germany and Ottoman Turkey among the Allied powers in order to aid in the colonies' social and economic development. (10) Under this system, Palestine was assigned to Great Britain. (11)

During WWI, prior to the official assignment of the Palestinian Mandate to Great Britain, the country began discussing the fate of Palestine after the War. (12) During WWI, Great Britain committed herself to two independent and conflicting doctrines regarding the management of Palestine in the event of Allied victory. (13) The first is seen in the Husayn-McMahon correspondence, letters exchanged between the emir of Mecca, Husayn ibn Ali, and then British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon. (14) In short, the letters indicated a trade of British support for an independent Arab State in the region surrounding and including much of present-day Israel for Arab support against the Ottoman Empire in WWI. (15) This directly conflicted with the Balfour Declaration made in 1917 by Arthur James Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a prominent Jewish British leader. (16) In his letter, Balfour indicated British support of a Jewish national home in Palestine. (17) These two conflicting commitments set the stage for the careful balancing act that was the British Mandatory period.

The Balfour Declaration, combined with growing European support for Political Zionism, facilitated Jewish immigration into Palestine with the hope of developing a Jewish national home in the region with the protection and support of the British Mandatory government. (18) The number of Jewish immigrants into mandatory Palestine during the mandatory period reached into the hundreds of thousands. (19) This massive influx of Jewish immigration caused backlash from the Arab residents of the region for a variety of reasons. (20)

During the British Mandate, the Arabs living in Palestine were largely peasant farmers who farmed land belonging to wealthy Arab landowners. (21) These peasant farmers often farmed the same land for generations and saw the influx of Jewish immigrants as a threat to their way of life, established communities, and social structure. (22) In contrast, the wealthy Arab landowners saw a business opportunity, and began selling land to new Jewish immigrants, further exacerbating the existing tensions between Arabs and Jews. (23)

Tension, marked by violence, continued to build in the region and the end of the British Mandate was marked by attacks from both Arabs and Jews and even more attempts by Jewish immigrants to settle in the region and cement their control in order to build a national home. (24) Upon realizing that the situation in Palestine was becoming too much for them to control, Great Britain attempted to quell rising Arab riots against the increased Jewish immigration by issuing the 1939 White Paper, which limited Jewish immigration. (25) In response to this limit on Jewish immigration, Zionist paramilitary organizations declared war on Britain and began attacking British headquarters in Palestine. (26)

B. The Creation of Israel

Soon it became clear that the British presence in Palestine was inadequate to control the increasing violence in the region, and there was a public outcry for Great Britain to remove herself from the region. (27) Britain brought the question of Palestine before the United Nations because of her reluctance to become further involved in the escalating violence between Arabs and Jewish settlers. The United Nations ("UN") created the Special Committee on Palestine ("UNSCOP") in April of 1947 as a response to Britain's request. (28) The result of the UNSCOP was a recommendation to partition Palestine, herein known as the Partition Plan. (29) The Partition Plan recommended creating two independent states, one Jewish and one Arab, with the UN Trusteeship Council administering Jerusalem. (30) The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency, the leading voice for the Zionist movement, although it was still dissatisfied with a number of factors. (31) Alternatively, the plan was rejected by Arab Palestinians and the surrounding Arab States, who found the plan incompatible with the objectives and stated principles of the United Nations. (32)

On May 14, 1948, Great Britain officially ended mandatory control over Palestine and, later that same day, the Jewish Agency declared the creation of the State of Israel ("Israel") along the lines presented in the Partition Plan. (33)

C. Nakba and the Creation of the Palestinian Refugees

Initially, the movement of Palestinians out of the territory of the newly formed Israel and the remaining Arab territory began slowly. As violence increased, and the likelihood of the creation of a permanent Jewish state also increased, upper and middle-class Arabs fled to the surrounding Arab countries. (34) Initially, these Arabs were welcomed with open arms by the surrounding countries and were seen as refugees of a religious war. (35) Soon, the crisis continued developing, and accounts of Jewish paramilitary organizations committing ethnic cleansing against Palestinians came to light in surrounding Arab countries. (36)

The day after the declaration of the creation of Israel, May 15, 1948, marks the nakba for Palestinians. (37) Although the events of the nakba began in the weeks leading up to the creation of Israel, May 15, is the day used annually by Palestinians as a rallying point for remembrance. (38) The history of the nakba and the exact actions taken by Israel and the Palestinians in response is up for debate. (39) Many more Arabs were expelled during the Arab-Israeli War, which began the day after Israel declared its independence. (40)

At the end of 1948, in the midst of the developing refugee crisis, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194, which recognized the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees wishing to return to their land and property in Israel. (41) The right of return has been a source of contention for Israel since the passage of the Resolution. (42) The traditional Arab view was that clause 11 of Resolution 194 gave Palestinian Arabs a "comprehensive right to return." (43) This stands in contrast to the Israeli view that Palestinians had the option to return, subject to Israeli permission, and that aside from return, there were alternatives such as resettlement. (44) Following the First Arab-Israeli War many other acts of violence and rebellion between Israel, Palestinians, and surrounding Arab nations took place, and each impacted the region and the international community in various ways. (45) Of these conflicts, the most notable for the development of the Palestinian refugee crisis and the current development of the region was the Six-Day War. (46) The Six-Day War was short but impactful. During the Six-Day War Israel fought Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. (47) In less than a week, Israel occupied the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights regions (the "Occupied Territories"). (48)

While the war ended in June of 1967, the fight was not over for many Arabs, some od whom hoped to get recognition of the pre-war boundaries so as not to lose any more territory in the region. The United Nations soon took up the conflict, as two world superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, advocated on behalf of Israel and the Arab states, respectively. (49) The result of this conflict was the passage of UN Resolution 242, which reads in relevant part:

The Security Council... Affirms that the fulfilment of Charter
                principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in
                the Middle East which should include

...