Israel is described in its Declaration of Independence as a "Jewish state" – the legal definition "Jewish and democratic state" was adopted in 1985. In addition to its Jewish majority in the area excluding the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel is home to religious and ethnic minorities, some of whom report discrimination. In the Palestinian territories, successive Israeli governments have been subject to international criticism from other countries as well as international and domestic human rights groups. One of the Basic Laws of Israel, intended to form the basis of a future constitution, Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, is a major tool for safeguarding human rights and civil liberties in Israel. However, the United Nations Human Rights Council and Israeli human rights organization Adalah have highlighted that this law does not contain a general provision for equality and non-discrimination.Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee—Israel, CCPR/C/ISR/CO/3, 29 July 2010, para. 2, available at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/docs/CCPR.C.ISR.CO.3.doc
International human rights organizations, along with the United Nations and the United States Department of State, have reported human rights violations committed by Israel, particularly against minority groups. These reports include violations of the rights of Palestinians, both inside and outside Israel as well as other groups in Israel.
Freedom House in 2013 described Israel as more politically free and democratic than neighboring countries in the Middle East. According to the 2015 US Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Israel faces significant human rights problems regarding institutional discrimination against Arab citizens of Israel (many of whom self-identify as Palestinian), Ethiopian Israelis and women, and the treatment of refugees and irregular migrants. Other human rights problems include institutional discrimination against non-Orthodox Jews and intermarried families, and labor rights abuses against foreign workers.
History
The Council of the League of Nations adopted a resolution on 4 September 1931 regarding the general conditions required before the mandate regime could be brought to an end. The new government was to provide an oral or written declaration acknowledging acceptance of an obligation to constitutionally guarantee the equal rights of ethnic and religious minorities.Luther Harris Evans, "The General Principles Governing the Termination of a Mandate, The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Oct., 1932), pp. 735–758, American Society of International Law That resolution followed a longstanding precedent of international law in cases where the Great Powers had assisted in the restoration of sovereignty over a territory. The UN resolution on "The Future Government of Palestine" contained both a plan of partition and a Minority Protection Plan.The UN Secretariat reported that the General Assembly established a formal minority rights protection system as an integral part of UN GAR 181(II), 29 November 1947; the 'Plan for the Future Government of Palestine'. Resolution 181(II) was adopted in the second session of the General Assembly. It was cataloged during a review of Minority Rights Treaties conducted in 1950: see Chapter III, A.1. of the UN Document E/CN.4/367 , 7 April 1950.UN GAR 181(II) is also listed in the Table of Treaties, on Page xxxviii, of Self-determination and National Minorities, Oxford Monographs in International Law, Thomas D. Musgrave, Oxford University Press, 1997, . It placed minority, women's, and religious rights under the protection of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. The plan provided specific guarantees of fundamental human rights. The new states were to supply a declaration, which according to precedent was tantamount to a treaty.See International Human Rights in Context, Henry J. Steiner, Philip Alston, Ryan Goodman, Oxford University Press US, 2008, , page 100 The resolution stated that "the stipulations contained in the declarations are recognized as fundamental laws of State, and no law, regulation or official action shall conflict or interfere with these stipulations, nor shall any law, regulation or official action prevail over them."
The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel proclaimed, on 14 May 1948, that "the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country" was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and "Eretz-Israel [Land of Israel] and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home." It also declared that the state "will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."wikiquote:Israel#I
Some British academics argue that Israel has not fulfilled its obligation to constitutionally protect minority rights.Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, and Stefan Talmon, eds., The Reality of International Law: Essays in Honour of Ian Brownlie (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999) page 108D.P. O'Connell author "The Law of State Succession", Volume V of the Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law, 1956, Hersh Lauterpacht editor, pages 10–11, and 178Yvonne Schmidt, "Foundations of Civil and Political Rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories", GRIN Verlag, 2008, , page 98Mallison's testimony during the Senate hearings on "Colonization Of The West Bank Territories By Israel", page 50
Israeli Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, states that fundamental human rights in Israel shall be upheld in the spirit of the principles set forth in the Declaration, but it specifically exempted legislation that was already in force. Israeli legal scholars say that the wording of the law was adopted to avoid the difficulty of giving priority to equality, which was not expressly entrenched. The result is that the principle of equality can be reversed by ordinary legislation, and furthermore will not override statutory or judge-made laws.
Status of freedom, political rights and civil liberties in Israel
Citizenship rights The Israeli the Nationality Law and the Law of Return, differentiate between Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Israelis by reifying the concept of Jewish nationality as separate from Israeli citizenship. Despite its title, the Nationality Law does not establish the notion of an Israeli nationality, instead associating nationality with religious affiliation.Erakat, Noura. Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine. United States, Stanford University Press, 2019.
The Nationality Law permits Palestinians to become citizens of Israel only if they were present (or are the descendants of those present) in Israel between 1948 and 1952. These constraints exclude all those who were expelled or who fled between December 1947 and March 1949 and their descendants. The Law of Return ensures the right of every Jew to immigrate to Israel and automatically become an Israeli citizen. Palestinians and their descendants who were expelled or fled between December 1947 and March 1949 are denied this right.
The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (2003) denies Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territories the right to acquire Israeli residency or citizenship status, even in cases where they are married to citizens of Israel. This ban is based on nationality and not on individual case-by-case security concerns.
On 28 July 2008, the Knesset approved The Citizenship Law (Amendment No. 9) (Authority for Revoking Citizenship) (2008), which allows Israeli citizenship to be revoked on the basis of a "breach of trust". More specifically, breach of trust may include the act of residing in certain Arab or Muslim states or the Gaza Strip. Revocation of citizenship on this basis without a criminal conviction is permitted by this law.
Rights and liberties ratings by NGOs
The 2013 Freedom in the World annual survey and report by US-based Freedom House, which attempts to measure the degree of democracy and political freedom in every nation, ranked Israel along with Tunisia as the Middle East and North Africa's only free countries.
+Rating of Israel, and its occupied territories, by Freedom House, The Economist Intelligence Unit and Transparency International Country / Entity – NGO Freedom House The Economist Intelligence Unit Transparency International Report-Ranking Freedom in the World Democracy Index Corruption Perceptions Index Freedom ratingFree, Partly Free, Not Free Political rights Civil liberties Democracy ratingFull democracy, Flawed democracy, Hybrid regime, Authoritarian regime Overall score Political corruption perceptions Israel Free 1 2 Flawed democracy 7.79 6.0 Israeli occupied territories Not Free 6 6 N/A N/A N/A Notes Per Freedom House 2009 ratings. For political rights and civil liberties indices, 1 represents the most-free and 7 the least-free rating. Per The Economist Intelligence Unit 2010 ratings. Full democracies have an overall score of 10 to 8, flawed democracies have an overall score of 7.9 to 6, hybrid regimes have an overall score of 5.9 to 4, and authoritarian regimes have an overall score from 3.9 to 1. The extent of democracy is higher as the score increases. According to the annual Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, the score ranges from 10 (squeaky clean) to 0 (highly corrupt).
Israeli citizens and human rights organizations have criticized the Israeli government for assailing civil society organizations and human rights activists in recent years.The Guardian, 16 January 2011, "Thousands of Israelis Rally in Defence of Human and Civil Rights: Tel Aviv Sees Largest Demonstration in Years as People Protest against Parliamentary Investigation into Funding of Rights Groups "The Nation, 26, Feb. 2016, "Israel Unleashes an Onslaught on Human-Rights NGOs, Artists, and Writers: The new wave of McCarthyite smears and repressive laws is unprecedented "Amnesty International, 12 April 2016, Israeli Government Must Cease Intimidation of Human Rights Defenders, Protect Them from Attacks "New Israel Fund, 28 Jan. 2016, "We Refuse to Back Down " According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Israel's oldest and largest civil liberties organization, a series of Israeli government efforts in recent years have attacked Israeli civil society and the Supreme Court of Israel. A December 2017 ACRI report presents what it views as examples of persistent Israeli government attack against Israeli democracy, human rights, the right to protest, respect for the underlying value of equality, and the liberties of political, social and ethnic minorities.Association for Civil Rights in Israel, "Overview of Anti-Democratic Legislation Advanced by the 20th Knesset ," (ACRI report published December 2017) retrieved 9 May 2018 This trend in Israel has been called "constitutional retrogression" by some legal analysts.University of Maryland School of Law, Maryland Law Review, A Jewish and (Declining) Democratic State? Constitutional Retrogression in Israel ," Vol. 77, Issue 1, art. 11
Elections, political parties, and representation