- published: 15 May 2013
- views: 8304
A Jewish state refers to the debate that is in progress on the nature and character of Israel. Modern Israel came into existence on 14 May 1948 as the homeland for the Jewish people. However, the nature of the new state as a Jewish state was undefined and is the subject of continuing debate, and is the cause of some conflict in the Arab-Israel conflict.
Since the establishment of the state, Israel has passed many laws which reflect on the Jewish identification and values of the vast majority of its citizens. However, the secular versus religious debate in Israel in particular has focused debate on the Jewish nature of the state. Another aspect of the debate is the status of minorities in Israel, most notably the Israeli Arab population.
The first usage of the term "Jewish state" was by Theodor Herzl who in late 1895 wrote Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) giving birth to the modern Zionist movement. There was no reference to a Jewish state by the Zionist Organisation that he founded, preferring at first to use the description "Jewish homeland" or similar terms. The 1942 Biltmore Program of the Zionist Organization explicitly called "that Palestine be established as a Jewish Commonwealth." In 1946, the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, also known as the Grady-Morrison Committee, noted that the demand for a Jewish State went beyond the obligations of either the Balfour Declaration or the Mandate, and had been expressly disowned by the Chairman of the Jewish Agency as recently as 1932.
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