Does Israeli Law Say Self-Determination Is Exclusive to Jews?

11 justices heard HCJ 5555/18, and the Supreme Court of Israel held Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People valid on 8 July 2021, dismissing the 15 petitions against it. The Knesset published the enacted text in English, and clause 1(c) states that “the realization of the right to national self-determination in the State of Israel is exclusive to the Jewish People.” In the same judgment the Supreme Court of Israel held that the Knesset, acting as constituent authority, is “not all powerful” and may not, even by Basic Law, deny or facially contradict the core character of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Israeli bodies publish no classification of the State as supremacist or otherwise; what they publish is enacted text, judgments and one commissioned review, set out below.

Figure	What it counts	Who published it	Period
11 justices	Panel hearing the petitions against the Nation-State Basic Law	Supreme Court of Israel	Heard 22 December 2020, judgment 8 July 2021
15 petitions	Challenges to the Basic Law, all dismissed	Supreme Court of Israel	Judgment of 8 July 2021
Clause 1(c)	Self-determination in Israel stated to be exclusive to the Jewish People	The Knesset	Adopted 2018, text as amended to 1 May 2022
Clause 4(b)	Arabic given “a special status in the State”	The Knesset	Adopted 2018, text as amended to 1 May 2022
Paragraph 40A	Allocation of state land to the Jewish Agency for a Jews-only settlement declared not permitted by law	Supreme Court of Israel	Judgment of 8 March 2000
19 November 2014	Date a commissioned review recommended against further constitutional anchoring of the State’s vision	Ruth Gavison, on the Minister of Justice’s appointment	Commissioned 12 August 2013, published February 2015
2 statutes	Ordinary anti-discrimination laws with no current official English text on an Israeli state host	The Knesset publishes English translations of the Basic Laws only	As at 2026

The Knesset may not deny democratic character, HCJ 5555/18 held

The petitions failed and the law stands. Alongside that result, the Supreme Court of Israel stated a limit on constituent power: the test is whether an amendment denies the core democratic identity of the State, or inflicts mortal harm on the minimal core characteristics of its identity as a Jewish and democratic state. The Court derived that limit from the elements of the constitution developed since the founding, naming the Declaration of Independence, the Basic Laws, Knesset legislation and Supreme Court case law.

The clauses of the enacted text, in the Knesset’s own published translation:

• Clause 1(b) states that Israel “is the nation state of the Jewish People in which it realizes its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to self-determination.”
• Clause 1(c) states that the realization of that right in the State of Israel “is exclusive to the Jewish People.”
• Clause 4 states that “Hebrew is the language of the State,” that “Arabic has a special status in the State,” and that nothing in the article compromises the status given to Arabic in practice before the law came into force.
• Clause 7 states that the State “views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value, and shall act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation.”
• The text carries no equality clause and no individual-rights clause. That is a fact about the wording of this instrument.

Ka’adan holds the State cannot discriminate indirectly through the Jewish Agency

The Supreme Court of Israel ruled on 8 March 2000, in HCJ 6698/95, that the State “was not permitted, by law, to allocate state land to the Jewish Agency, for the purpose of establishing the communal settlement of Katzir on the basis of discrimination between Jews and non-Jews.” The remedy was narrower than the declaration: the Court ordered the State to consider the petitioners’ request to purchase a parcel in Katzir on the principle of equality, and left open whether it could enable that within the framework of the law. The judgment was decided by majority, with Kedmi J dissenting on retrospectivity alone.

• Paragraph 34: “The State cannot escape its legal obligation to respect the principle of equality by using a third party that adopts a discriminatory policy. What the State cannot do directly, it cannot do indirectly.”
• Paragraph 38: “Discrimination does not lose its discriminatory character, even if it is being carried out through the Jewish Agency, and therefore is not permitted to the State.”
• Paragraph 31, on the Law of Return: “members of the Jewish nation were granted a special key to enter … but once a person has lawfully entered the home, he enjoys equal rights with all other household members.”
• Paragraph 31 also states that the Court does not accept that the values of the State as a Jewish state would justify discrimination by the State between its citizens on the basis of religion or nationality.

Gavison recommended in 2014 against anchoring the vision in legislation

Ruth Gavison submitted her recommendations to the Israeli Minister of Justice on 19 November 2014, four years before the Basic Law was adopted. This is one jurist’s recommendation, commissioned on 12 August 2013 with the agreement of all coalition factions and never adopted by any government or by the Knesset, and it contains no statistic. Her central recommendation was to refrain, at that stage, from additional constitutional anchoring of the core vision through legislation, in part or as a whole, and to leave the Declaration of Independence as it is rather than expose it to the controversies of a campaign to enact it as a Basic Law “in totally different social and political circumstances.” Her conditional recommendation was that if anchoring were legislated anyway, the law and its legislative process should strengthen civic solidarity in Israel and Jewish solidarity in Israel and abroad, and manifest a fair, generous and inclusive attitude to the Arab minority; the Hebrew volume adds that the law must be a vision law and not a nation law, a clause that does not appear in her own published English translation of the same bullet.

No state host publishes an English text of 2 anti-discrimination statutes

The two ordinary Israeli anti-discrimination statutes are not readable in English on any Israeli state host. The Knesset publishes English translations of the Basic Laws only, and marks even those unofficial; the Ministry of Justice’s authorised series “Laws of the State of Israel” ran from volume 1 (1948) to volume 45 (1989/90) and was discontinued. This page therefore quotes neither statute.

• Equal Employment Opportunities Law, 5748-1988: no current official English text located on an Israeli state host, and every amendment to it postdates the discontinued series.
• Prohibition of Discrimination in Products, Services and Entry into Places of Entertainment and Public Places Law, 5761-2000: enacted after the series ended, so it never appeared in it.
• The closest state-published English rendering is Israel’s 14th periodic report under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published on gov.il in 2010. That report is a party’s own account of its own compliance, describes rather than reproduces section 3 of the 2000 Law, and carries no grounds list at all for the 1988 Law.

Which of these texts is an unofficial translation?

The Knesset marks its own English translations of the Basic Laws unofficial, and directs readers to the Hebrew for the operative law, so every clause quoted above is quoted from that English text and the Hebrew governs. The Ka’adan text quoted here is the Cardozo Israeli Supreme Court Project’s translation, not the Judicial Authority’s. Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty contains no equality clause, so the equality rule quoted in the Ka’adan section is judge-made and belongs to that judgment rather than to the statute book. The Gavison recommendation is dated by three different years in circulation: commissioned 12 August 2013, submitted 19 November 2014, published February 2015. The Basic Law was adopted on 19 July 2018, three years and eight months after the submission.

Questions readers ask

Does Israel’s Nation-State Law say self-determination is exclusive to Jews?

Yes, in those terms. The Knesset published clause 1(c), which states that the realization of the right to national self-determination in the State of Israel “is exclusive to the Jewish People.”

Did Israel’s Supreme Court strike any part of the law down?

No. The Supreme Court of Israel held the Basic Law valid on 8 July 2021 and dismissed all 15 petitions.

What limit did the Court set?

The Supreme Court of Israel held that the Knesset has no authority, even by Basic Law, to deny or facially contradict the core character of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

Where does the Court get that limit from?

The Supreme Court of Israel derived it from the Declaration of Independence, the Basic Laws, Knesset legislation and its own case law.

Does the Nation-State Law contain an equality clause?

No. The Knesset published a text with no equality clause and no individual-rights clause, which is a fact about the wording of that instrument.

What status does the law give Arabic?

Clause 4, as the Knesset published it, states that Hebrew is the language of the State and that Arabic “has a special status in the State,” while preserving the status Arabic had in practice before the law came into force.

Can the State allocate land for a Jews-only community?

The Supreme Court of Israel declared in 2000 that the State was not permitted by law to allocate state land to the Jewish Agency for a settlement founded on discrimination between Jews and non-Jews.

Did the Ka’adan family win the right to live in Katzir?

The judgment did not order that. The Supreme Court of Israel ordered the State to consider their request on the principle of equality, and left open whether it could enable it within the framework of the law.

What did the Court say about the Law of Return?

The Supreme Court of Israel stated that members of the Jewish nation were granted “a special key to enter,” and that once a person has lawfully entered, that person enjoys equal rights with all other household members.

Who reviewed the question before the law was passed?

Ruth Gavison, on the Israeli Minister of Justice’s appointment of 12 August 2013, and she recommended on 19 November 2014 against further constitutional anchoring of the State’s vision through legislation.

Was her review adopted?

No. No government or Knesset acted on it, and the printed volume was issued by the author rather than by the ministry.

Where can Israel’s ordinary anti-discrimination laws be read in English?

Not on an Israeli state host, as at 2026. The Knesset publishes English translations of the Basic Laws only, and the Ministry of Justice’s authorised English series ended with volume 45, covering 1989/90.

Sources

• Gavison, R., 2015. Constitutional Anchoring of Israel’s Vision? Recommendations under the Minister of Justice’s Appointment of August 2013. Metzilah Center, Jerusalem. Government-commissioned expert review, not adopted policy.
• Israeli Supreme Court, 2000. HCJ 6698/95 Ka’adan v. Israel Land Administration. Judgment of 8 March 2000, English text published by the Cardozo Israeli Supreme Court Project. Court judgment.
• Israeli Supreme Court, 2021. HCJ 5555/18 Hasson v. Knesset. Judgment of 8 July 2021, panel of eleven. Court judgment.
• Knesset, 1992, amendments through 1 May 2022. Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, 5752-1992. Published English translation, marked unofficial. Enacted legislation.
• Knesset, 2018, amendments through 1 May 2022. Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People. Published English translation, marked unofficial. Enacted legislation.
• Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2010. Israel’s fourteenth periodic report under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. gov.il. Official report by the reporting state.
• Provisional Government of Israel, 1948. Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel. Official Gazette Number 1, 14 May 1948. Founding instrument.