There are two ways to look at this event. In one respect, it simply enshrines long-standing Israeli practices in law. Yet it also signals the abandonment of any pretense that Israel is, as it has long claimed, a democracy.
The Nation-State Law defines Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people and asserts that “the realization of the right to national self-determination in Israel is unique to the Jewish people.” Similarly, it promises that “Israel will ensure the safety of the Jewish people” but mentions the protection of no other group.
Adalah attorney Fady Khoury puts it plainly: “In Israel, the new law explicitly defines the Jewish people as the only group with the only right to self-determination, while negating the rights of the indigenous people. This creates a system of hierarchy and supremacy.”[...]
For example, it is now impossible to say that the International Criminal Court’s definition of apartheid does not apply to Israel. According to the ICC, apartheid is “an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.” The new law establishes precisely such a regime.
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