Bans and Oaths

The Israeli legislature, the Knesset, is scaring me lately. Last year, when I was living in Kufr Qara and first heard of the proposal for a “loyalty oath” in Israel, I largely dismissed it as the remarks of one extremely nationalist politician.  It was no great surprise coming from Avigdor Lieberman, the newly elected Foreign Minister and head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party.  The oath he proposed would require all citizens to swear loyalty to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.   I never honestly thought that I would be seeing Prime Minister Netanyahu pushing it through his Cabinet this year and handing it to the Knesset. With the number of Israeli academics and journalist who have written impassioned, reasonable, and historically-sound arguments against such an oath, I also thought that reason could not fail to reach Netanyahu’s government.  Evidently I was wrong.

There is still hope that the loyalty oath will fail to gain the votes need to pass in the Knesset.  Reported today by Ha’aretz, there are so many disagreements about wording the bill (should only non-Jews have to swear the oath? Should all new immigrants? Does it apply mostly to Arabs?) that many Knesset members even of parties like Yisrael Beiteinu are reluctant to approve it.  Read the article here.  Why is there such a debate over it? Because “loyalty oaths” are scary. Because they sound authoritarian. And because a lot of people are threatened by it, most of all the 20% of Israel’s population who are Arab Palestinians.

I believe that no state can declare its identity to be one religion and hope to keep the true principles of democracy and equality intact.  I also think that Israel can still be the homeland for the Jewish people without declaring itself a Jewish State.  It’s a subtle but crucial distinction in my mind.

Not that these distinctions are escaping Israeli politicians. They know well what these phrases mean to non-Jews in Israel. Efforts to keep control the narrative of ‘what Israel is’ are ongoing. These are also getting scarier. Today I also read that another Knesset MK, Gideon Ezra from Kadima, sponsored a bill that would ban Arabs from working as tour guides in Jerusalem (of which there are at least 300 currently).  Yes, that’s right. Ban Arabs from working as tour guides.  I cannot believe these things are even being publicly discussed! Mr. Ezra’s reason? Arab tour guides do not present the “national Israel viewpoint,” and “do not represent Israel’s interests in the appropriate manner.” Read the article here.  Do I need to even explain what I think about this? Believing that a state has, or should have, one ‘national viewpoint’ is to deny the values of democracy, pluralism, and individual freedoms.  I hope that the Knesset will come out against state-sponsored tour guides based on ethnicity.  I truly hope so, or I will know that Israel has completely lost its way.

Loyalty oaths and bans on certain ethnic groups scare me, because they remind me of so many cases in history where countries have gone down similar paths, only to be haunted by their own creations.  Yes, the Israel-Palestine conflict might make some think that this is a special case, where extraordinary measures are needed. That has also been said before.  Extraordinary measures are needed, but not in this direction. Instead of increasing the distrust, hatred and fear between ‘the loyal ones’ and the ‘disloyal ones’ – the politicians of Israel should be working to resolving this conflict. If only that were apparent. Instead of efforts to make peace, what’s grabbing the headlines are loyalty oaths and further discrimination against Arabs.