Israel Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People
חוק יסוד: ישראל - מדינת הלאום של העם היהודי
Summary
Constitutional Basic Law passed by the Knesset establishing Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Demoted Arabic from official status to a language with "special status," recognized "Jewish settlement" as a national value, and explicitly tied national self-determination to Jewish people only.
Impact
Sharpened the constitutional asymmetry between Jewish and Arab citizens. Triggered the largest Druze protest in Israeli history. Cited by Israeli left and Arab parties as proof of the rightward constitutional shift; defended by the right as overdue codification.
Parties involved
Sources
- introduced_date en.wikipedia.org 2026-06-06 — Passed 2018-07-19, 62-55
https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/il-nation-state-law How to cite
This is a citation for the legislation itself — credited to Knesset and dated to its 2018 introduction. Tayyar is the retrieval surface, not the author. A separate "Retrieved via" line records that you accessed it through this dataset.
In-text: (Knesset, 2018) (Knesset, 2018)
APA 7Institutional author
Knesset. (2018). Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People [Legislation]. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/il-nation-state-law. Retrieved June 21, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/il-nation-state-law.
Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals
Knesset. 2018. “Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People.” Legislation. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/il-nation-state-law. Accessed June 21, 2026.
BibTeXLaTeX / Zotero / reference managers
@misc{tayyar-bill-il-nation-state-law,
title = {{Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People}},
author = {{Knesset}},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-07-19},
type = {Legislation},
url = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/il-nation-state-law},
urldate = {2026-06-21},
note = {Retrieved via Tayyar on June 21, 2026}
}