Essay: “To what extent did state-society relations change in recent years in Israel?”
Introduction
The Israeli state is a democracy in region surrounded by autocratic and despotic rulers. Although it is a young state, its system of democracy and conflict resolution can be traced back to the Diaspora in exile living in central and Eastern Europe, Halakha. Anti-Semitism was rife and the founding of the state was a direct result of the sufferings and persecution of Jews that culminated in the Holocaust, or Shoah, as Israelis call it. Only one example of anti-Semitism will be used in this paper for practical reasons. An excerpt from Ha’ahdut 1912, “Modern anti-Semitism which the Jews have suffered from during this last century, in politically free countries as well, is largely a consequence of the abnormal economic positions that the Jews have occupied in the Diaspora…today, the Jewish people has many more shopkeepers, businessmen, teachers, doctors, etc….than the small and impoverished masses of Jewish workers is able to support. Thus our shopkeepers, businessmen, and members of the liberal professions are obliged to gain their livelihood at the expense of the hard toil of the non-Jewish workers
Birth of a state.
In 1948 the Jewish state was formed and the infrastructure of the state and its foundation for government was laid. In May 1948, the yishuv (Jews living in Palestine before the creation of the state of Israel) merged the National Council and Jewish Agency and added to this, Agudat Israel, Revisionists, Sephardim, and the Communists. This body became known as the Peoples Council and had 37 members and became the legislative body from which a smaller body, the Peoples Administration, became the Executive branch; the Cabinet of Israeli government. In this, only the Revisionists and Communists were excluded. The dominant party at the time was the Mapai, led by David Ben-Gurion. He wanted to form unity amongst the Jewish people and was inclined to permit pluralism and bring all elements of Jewish society under the umbrella of the state. To achieve this, Ben-Gurion reduced sectarianism in civic and public life. The Declaration of Independence in May 1948, at the Tel Aviv Museum Hall, ushered in a new state to the League of Nations. Shortly afterwards the Peoples Council in command held a meeting that turned into a debate. It proposed something that Israel is asking for in 2011 but had already claimed: A Jewish State. At 13.50 hours Meir Wilner had a clause inserted in section 9 of the Declaration, “…calling for the establishment of an independent Jewish state in Eretz Israel”. At the end of section 11 it says, “We hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel”.
The state
Israeli civil society consisted of the following in the 2004 census. 76.4 % Jews (of which 67.1% are Israeli born, 22.6% of European or American origin, 5.9% of African origin, 4.2% Asian born) and 23.6% that are mostly Arab. Population: 7.4 million (2008 census). There is no formal constitution but some functions are covered by the Declaration of Establishment (1948) and The Basic Laws of parliament (Knesset). Since May 2003, the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee of the Knesset has been working on a draft constitution.
Society.
Israeli civic society has been in a state of flux along with its borders since the establishment of the state in 1948. Britain attempted to honour its commitment to establish a national home for the Jewish people and simultaneously adhering to the framework of the Balfour Declaration in order to protect the civil rights of non-Jewish communities in Palestine. The realisation of the Zionist vision led to mass immigration to Israel, of Jews from Middle Eastern countries and Europe and a mass flight of Palestinian Arabs who either fled or were forced from their homes.
Relations, between state and society.
The importance of Israel for Jews, Christians and Muslims puts Israeli society under a global microscope. The tensions between Jews and Muslims create problems for the state. This relationship has a profound historical and theological history between Christian and Jew, whilst the Muslim parts of society view the Jew as an artificially transplanted entity in a dominant Muslim and Arab region. In Israeli society an example to reflect its divisions and relation to the state could be a military one, “the manpower that can be mobilised for security needs includes neither Israel’s Arab citizens nor many members of the orthodox sector”.
Judaism is the oldest of the three Abrahamaic faiths and evolved over a period of over 1,500 years and is in itself, a key part of the Old Testament. The name derives from the region of Judah, where the word Jew also originates. Jacob’s religious name Israel, became the ancestor of Bnai Yisrael , Sons of Israel. Originally a semi-nomadic race as was Abraham. In contemporary Israeli society, Judaism encompasses groups like ultra-orthodox Hasidim, Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism and the Reconstructionists. An ongoing argument that continued well into the 2,000’s by Israeli religious authorities and American Jewish leaders concerns the status of Conservative and Reform Jews that pits religious civil society against the Israeli state.
The problematic nature of religion and state in Israel is a product of pre-state developments, the Israeli political system, basic Zionist premises and contemporary religious activism, “The issue of religion and state in Israel is one of the most burning social issues in the country today. While Jewish ethnic conflict no longer constitutes a source for most social scientists, the tensions generated by conflicting positions on the basic nature of the state poses perhaps the greatest internal threat to Israel’s stability”.
The “Arab Spring,” (the demonstrations for free elections in the Arab world) that has profound and disturbing implications for Israel’s security; the expulsions of Israel’s ambassador from Turkey and Venezuela, the storming of Israel’s embassy in Cairo, the recall by Israel of their ambassador in Jordan and the growing rift between Israel and Turkey, the murder by Israel of Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai are but a few examples of a new realpolitik emerging in the Middle East: a change in state-society relations. Perhaps the most difficult event for Israel to deal within parts of its society is the emergence of Hamas as the governing political party in Gaza.
“The ruling political class had no intention of absorbing Arabs into Israeli society where they would compete with Jewish immigrants for land, water, welfare and jobs”. The perceived rights of the Arabs were taken away by Israeli military institutions. The Arabs were excluded from being a fully fledged member of society and dependency set in. They became alienated. The sociological terminology, “…civil religion of Israeli national life-Independence Day, The Sabbath, school and work holidays on Jewish festivals, and so on-held little meaning for them”.
Hamas, until recently, was the only democratically elected government in the Arab World. The people of Gaza are in effect the victims of collective punishment for choosing Hamas over Fatah. The Palestinians became aware of the endemic corruption that is rife within Fatah.
In December 1988, Yasser Arafat stated, “…the PLO has accepted Israel’s’ right to exist, will participate…in international peace conferences on the basis of UN resolutions 242 and 338”. Arafat forfeited the Right to Return for the Palestinian refugees, lost credibility with millions of Palestinians but gained recognition from the US and its allies.
Presently, the PLO has an application lodged at the UN for statehood but something Arafat did not take into consideration was the US’s blind loyalty to Israel. He did not foresee that the US would use its veto to deny the Palestinians statehood.
Hamas was virtually unheard of outside the Middle East until 1992. Hamas kidnapped an Israel soldier, Sergeant-Major Nissim Toledano, an Israeli border policeman and executed him when their demands were not met. In retaliation, the Israelis forcibly deported 415 Hamas and Islamic Jihad members on December 18th 1992 to Marj Al-Zuhur (field of flowers) a bleak and desolate landscape. The deportees were the cream of their society. 17 university lecturers with doctorates, 11 doctors of medicine, 14 engineers, 36 businessmen, 5 journalists, 109 university students and 208 imams. This incident enabled them to mingle, network and rebuild Hamas
Conclusion
State-society relations have changed in recent times for Israel. It has its own internal indigenous activist groups that pitched their tents on Rothschild Boulevard to protest against the lack of social housing. The other Israeli/Jewish group that has upended the status quo are the so called settlers a, group of organised thieves that illegally occupy Palestinian land following their country’s example. When challenged by the Israeli police and evicted, they mount a campaign called “price-tagging” whereby they enter the area they have been evicted from and uproot ancient olive groves, smear excrement on the Qur’an and burn mosques in retaliation for being evicted.
“There were just a few hundred settlers in the West Bank when I became president and all my predecessors had categorised each settlement as an obstacle to peace…after I left office the Likud government expanded its settlement activity…I quote the key passages from Ronald Reagan in September 1982, ““The United States will not support the use of any additional land …settlement activity is in no way necessary and diminishes the confidence of the Arabs…”.
“Although President Clinton made strong efforts to promote peace…a massive increase in settlers occurred during his administration , mostly while Ehud Barak was prime minister…by 2001, there were 225,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza…the best offer to the Palestinians was by Clinton not Barak, to withdraw 20% of them leaving about 5% of the occupied land. The 5% figure is misleading. It only describes the actual footprints of the settlements. In addition there are other areas listed for expansion, roadways that join the settlements with each other and to Jerusalem, and “life arteries” that provide water, sewage, electricity and communications. These range in width from 500 metres to 4,000 metres and Palestinians cannot even use or cross many of these links. The honeycomb of settlements and their interconnecting arteries divide the entire West Bank into multiple fragments, often uninhabitable or even unreachable. There are about 100 military checkpoints completely surrounding Palestine and along the roads going into or between Palestinian communities”.
The status quo between Israel and its society is seeing the largest upheaval regarding this movement and its cause: A lack of social housing.
“The Religious Right’s role is prominent in opposing territorial compromise. The groups in Israeli society that belong to this are, Shas, United Torah Judaism,, National Union and Jewish Home. They exert considerable political influence and the religious right play an important role within the Likud”.