Implications of Seeing Israel as a Jewish (and Democratic) State

The paper starts from the fact that Israel is described as a 'Jewish and Democratic' state. It opens with a rejection of some preliminary charges that Israel cannot be both Jewish and democratic or that maintaining its Jewish particularity is in principle unjustified. The main part of the paper analyzes various issues, such as the right to participate in elections, immigration, and education, to show what arrangements may be required by a wish to maintain the Jewishness of the state while, at the same time, respecting the human rights of all its residents.