| Summary/Abstract |
This analysis explores the origins and constitutional implications of Basic Law: Israel – The Nation State of the Jewish People (hereafter the Jewish Nation-State Law), enacted by the Israeli Knesset in July 2018. It examines the antecedents of the legislation in Israeli jurisprudence and argues that most of the law's provisions are the product of precedents established by Israel's Supreme Court, specifically the court's rulings delivered post-Oslo. The authors contend that the “two states for two peoples” vision of so-called liberal Zionists paved the way for Israel's right-wing politicians to introduce this law. Their analysis holds that the law is radical in nature: far from being a mere continuation of the status quo, it confers unprecedented constitutional status on ordinary policies and destabilizes the prevailing legal distinction between the area within the Green Line and the 1967 occupied territories.
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