As they do every year, on the eve of their country’s 71st Independence Day, Israeli children attending public religious schools (not independent ultra-Orthodox ones) learned about the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel (popularly known as the Declaration of Independence). The foreword to a handbook for junior high school students in religious schools used to teach the subject reads, “The Declaration of Independence is the founding document of the State of Israel.” It also determines that “the State of Israel is based on the principles of democracy and equal rights for all its citizens … principles and core values without which an enlightened society cannot exist.”

It is worth noting that a “leftist” education minister such as the late Yossi Sarid or Yuli Tamir did not write this text. It was adapted from remarks by Limor Livnat of the Likud Party who served as education minister from 2001 to 2006. What appeared obvious at the time is highly unlikely to have been approved by Israel’s previous Knesset, nor would it get through even an initial reading in Israel’s newly elected Knesset. The radical right-wing United Right party expected to be tasked with control of the Ministry of Education in Israel’s next government represents those who believe in Jewish supremacy (see, for example, the teachings of rabbis at the military preparatory academy Bnei David in the West Bank settlement of Eli) and educate a generation of nationalist religious zealots. One of the United Right’s leaders, Knesset member Bezalel Smotrich, advocates for the separation in hospitals of Jewish and Arab women who give birth.

What will a civics teacher answer a student who asks how the values of justice promised in the Declaration of Independence to all citizens — irrespective of religion, race and sex — square with a law stipulating “the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people”? What will the teacher tell a student who asks how the promise of equality and the call to Israel’s Arabs to fulfill their role in state-building based on full and equal citizenship go hand-in-hand with a law stipulating “the State views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation”?

These questions relate, of course, to the Nationality Law, anchoring the Jewish nature of the State of Israel, adopted in 2018 by the previous Knesset and received by the incoming Knesset as a fait accompli. The alienation of Israel’s 21% Arab minority that is inherent in the legislation gives off a stench of nationalism, if not outright racism, and contradicts the spirit of the Declaration of Independence. The clause on self-determination, while hurtful to the feelings of Israel’s non-Jewish citizens and undermining their affinity for the state, does not have practical meaning. On the other hand, the clause stipulating that the state will only develop Jewish settlement constitutes a direct blow to the property rights of millions of Palestinians and undermines their affinity for the land of their forefathers. The previous Knesset translated this clause into action when it legislated the so-called Regularization Law, which retroactively legalized all buildings erected in West Bank settlements in contravention of the law.