Does nationality bill threaten Israeli democracy?

Based on the number of calls that Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) President Yohanan Plesner has received from the foreign press over the past few days, it seems that the nationality bill garners much interest outside of Israel, too.

Plesner, who fought with an elite Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unit and later served as a Knesset member for the Kadima Party (2007-13), found himself torn between his almost instinctive desire to defend the state and his realization that the nationality bill, which was passed by the government on Nov. 23, is unnecessary and would seriously undermine Israel's character as a democratic state.

Plesner has been interviewed by countless media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Canadian television. Based on the general tone of these conversations, it seems that the Western democracies are distressed by the fact that Israel is legislating laws that would exclude the Arab minority and erode the democratic nature of the state.

The nationality bill that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on bringing before the Knesset, even though it could lead to the dismantling of his coalition and early elections, is the kind of bill that puts the IDI into “emergency mode.” In other words, the IDI is calling up all its informational, research and public resources to stop the bill before it is enacted. The same thing happened quite a few times over the past few years because of other problematic laws proposed by Knesset members from the right. Some of these laws attempted to limit the power of the Supreme Court, while others tried to put a cap on contributions to nonprofit groups affiliated with the left. During the recent presidential election, there was even an attempt by the prime minister himself to change the President of Israel Basic Law to prevent President Reuven Rivlin from being elected.