Israel Constitution Enacted 2018-07-19

Basic Law: Israel — the Nation State of the Jewish People

قانون أساس: إسرائيل – الدولة القومية للشعب اليهودي

Summary

Declares Israel "the nation state of the Jewish People" and national self-determination "exclusive to the Jewish People"; names a complete and united Jerusalem the capital; makes Hebrew the language of the state and downgrades Arabic to "special status"; elevates Jewish settlement to "a national value." Passed 62-55-2 on 19 July 2018; entrenched as a Basic Law and upheld by the Supreme Court in July 2021.

Impact

The constitutional capstone of the Israeli national-right project under the Netanyahu/Likud government; read by critics as subordinating the Arab minority. Anchors Likud and the Israeli right on the Palestinian-question and civil-liberties axes.

Parties involved

Likud

Sources

official main.knesset.gov.il
main.knesset.gov.il — Knesset official English translation

Permalink https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/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)

APA 7Institutional author

Knesset. (2018). Basic Law: Israel — the Nation State of the Jewish People [Legislation]. https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/activity/documents/BasicLawsPDF/BasicLawNationState.pdf. Retrieved via Tayyar (https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/nation-state-law) on June 21, 2026.

Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals

Knesset. 2018. “Basic Law: Israel — the Nation State of the Jewish People.” Legislation. https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/activity/documents/BasicLawsPDF/BasicLawNationState.pdf. Retrieved via Tayyar, June 21, 2026.

BibTeXLaTeX / Zotero / reference managers

@misc{tayyar-bill-nation-state-law,
  title     = {{Basic Law: Israel — the Nation State of the Jewish People}},
  author    = {{Knesset}},
  year      = {2018},
  date      = {2018-07-19},
  type      = {Legislation},
  url       = {https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/activity/documents/BasicLawsPDF/BasicLawNationState.pdf},
  urldate   = {2026-06-21},
  note      = {Retrieved via Tayyar (https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/nation-state-law) on June 21, 2026}
}