> Israel defines itself as a "jewish" state (...)

I think the "Jewish state" refers to how the country serves as the homeland for the jewish people, not how they force a religion upon others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_state

Israel's legal definition is "Jewish and Democratic state", which explicitly ensures "complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_and_democratic_state

▲ CalChris 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The Basic Law (their Constitution) of Israel defines it as a Jewish state. Its first page says:

  The Land of Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish People, in which the State of Israel was established.
  (b) The State of Israel is the nation state of the Jewish People in which it realizes its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to self-determination.
  (c) The realization of the right to national self- determination in the State of Israel is exclusive to the Jewish People.

Not irrespective of religion, exclusive to the Jewish People.

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spwa4 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If you have a problem with laws defining this sort of thing, you're going to have problems with the constitution of any muslim-majority country. Including ... of course Palestine.

Hamas/Gaza:

“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: O’ Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him,”

And the west bank's government pays pensions according to how many Jews you hurt:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_Authority_Martyrs_...

(No worries the "parliamentary democracy" that the WB is - hah! - promises to stop that now. Well, except for the payments)

But this is a general problem with all muslim-majority nations. Take an extremely moderate one - Morocco - defines itself as:

"A sovereign Muslim State, attached to its national unity and to its territorial integrity, the Kingdom of Morocco intends to preserve,"

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ngcazz 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Even if you take those statements at face value, Israel is the only apartheid country being discussed here.

	▲	samjones33 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Have you paid attention to who can hold power in, say, Iran? Or Saudi Arabia? Or Syria? Or Jordan? Israel isn't any more apartheid than any of those places. Given that Israeli Arabs can and do vote (and become Medical Doctors), Israel is a heck of a lot _less_ apartheid than those places. Consider travel... it can help you get outside the "american" box.

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samjones33 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I think you have not paid attention to European and Middle Eastern countries.

They are all ethno states.

The very concept "nation-state" is an alignment of "ethnic tribe" with "political borders"

You might want to hit a history book or two.

In this regard, Israel is more normal and places like the U.S. are abnormal. (Once you get outside the U.S....)

▲ tdeck 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

With such a commitment to equality it's hard to believe policies like this slipped through

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaization_of_the_Galilee

	▲	gadilif 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It's a bad law (although somewhat covered with 'good intentions', it does have a scent of racism which shouldn't exist in state laws). However, note that the outcome was the unintentional creation of Jewish/Arabs communities in the Galilee, which actually help bring Jews and Arabs together. It is also important to note that Arab Israelis have full rights as citizens, have representatives in the parliament and even were a part of the previous coalition. This, of course, is not the case for Palestinians in the occupied territories, and this issue MUST be resolved (one- or two-state solution, either way the current situation is unbearable). With that, the current coalition does include extremists, and many (according to recent polls, >60%) in Israel want to see them replaced.

▲ hiddencost 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Absurd.