Israel has no constitution, its jurisdiction is unclear, borders have been constantly changing since independence, and the majority of the population of the occupied territories are not citizens of Israel. The constitution has never been defined and formally approved. The UN Declaration 181 of November 1947 partitioning Palestine required that the two future states, Jewish and Arab, have democratic constitutions with equal rights for all citizens. This is not the case. Ben-Gurion, Israel's founder, did not push for this so that his party would not lose power, in order to maintain the support of the religious parties and for fear of having an Arab population that would pose a threat to the future state that should be, in his vision, necessarily and uniquely Jewish.
The 1949 borders, green line, were never recognised by Israel, and neither were those of 1967, with annexations that were never internationally approved, the Golan, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The withdrawal from Sinai after the 1973 war was a bilateral agreement with Egypt. It remains unclear which territory is subject to state law and which are occupied territories under the mandate of a military occupation.
The West Bank is a territory that Israel wants to annex. It is an occupied territory and therefore not a formal part of the State of Israel. The policy pursued for years is to implant settlers from Jewish communities in eastern countries with no experience in democratic environments and therefore with a dose of radicalism, which causes a permanent and progressive conflict with the Palestinians.
At the end of the war of independence, 750,000 Palestinians remained in Israel; today there are 150,000. Citizenship in Israel was not established as a right until it was established that the majority of the population was Jewish. Laws of "free return" were put in place from 1950, granting citizenship to all Jews who wished to return. Today it is unclear who are the citizens with full rights, Jews, and who are not guaranteed them, Palestinians and other minorities.
Since 1950, 23 basic laws equivalent to the Constitution have been passed, but not all of them are guaranteed by the need for reinforced majorities for their amendment. The situation regarding guarantees and rights is ambiguous today in Israel; it has always been so.
Since Netanyahu came to power for the second time in 2009, the right, with the Likud, has launched a political war against the courts, which it accuses of having excessive power and therefore endangering the confessional nature of the state. Contrary to the custom and practice of any modern democratic state, the separation of state and religion is now impossible in Israel.
In 2011, the government majority passed a law against political boycotts, and in 2014 one requiring a referendum to withdraw from any occupied territory, even if it had been annexed as a result of war. This was to justify the present situation, even if it was arbitrary and unjust.
The media campaign against the courts for the establishment of new settler settlements, against freedom of expression, gender equality or the reduction of Palestinian rights was strong, mixed with the criminal cases against the Prime Minister for corruption.
When the Hamas terrorist attack occurred in October 2023, the demonstrations and opposition of a part of the Israeli citizenry against this situation were intense and continuous. The war put all this on hold. First, Hamas had to be eliminated and the hostages returned, then the legal framework had to be revised. It is not unreasonable to think that the extension of the war to 18 months has lost its meaning because Hamas was already defeated, but not annihilated, and that was and is certainly impossible, and the suffering of the hostages had no reason to exist and was useless. The continuation of the war was related only to the maintenance of thestatus quo and the postponement of the criminal trial for corruption against the prime minister. Between 2023 and 2024, the level of support for the Likud government did not exceed 35%, and confidence in Israel's democratic future fluctuated between 29% and 33%. Peace will weaken Netanyahu, despite his expansionist and imperial ambitions.
Netanyahu knows that in a country at peace, with no hostages in mortal danger, with a war won and a citizenry without fear, he can lose the election. In a state with numerous exceptions to democracy – who is a citizen and who is not, what are the borders, what is the territory of the state and what is the occupied territory – the resolution of the hatred and terrorism unleashed by war is indecipherable.
In the end, it turns out that, given the human and social problems of the State of Israel, not having a Constitution does not represent an advantage from any point of view, even if it seems that it can provide tactical advantages. On the contrary... Unless one opts for a apartheid today impossible and always undesirable, even for the Israeli population of Orthodox obedience.
