Fletcher Features
| “How Secular or Democratic Can a Jewish State Be?” |
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On September 25, 2002, Professor S. Ilan Troen, a visiting
professor at Brandeis University, spoke to a full crowd inside
ASEAN auditorium at The Fletcher School of Law Diplomacy.
Professor Troen is the first of four speakers invited to speak at
Tufts University as part of the Issam M. Fares Lecture Series
sponsored by the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies. Professor Troen delivered a provocative and illuminating lecture on the subject of Israel’s rough and uncharted path toward creating a secular and democratic Jewish state. According to Professor Troen, many have questioned whether Israel can be a democratic and Jewish state. Contrary to widespread belief that Israel must be one or the other, Troen stated that Israel could be both Jewish and democratic. Providing a brief look into history, Professor Troen described how secular roots were planted and nurtured in Israel. According to Troen, the Jewish community in Israel was established in revolutionary terms. To create a nation or national community based on a secular culture, when throughout history Jews were a nation based on religious culture, was truly a radical concept. The Jews succeeded; the expression of their success is the state of Israel. According to Troen, Israel’s secular culture has drawn from two important traditions: the prophetic tradition within Judaism and universal values generated by an enlightenment society. The intersection between the two has produced a “mess” and the confusing status quo that Israelis live with daily. Professor Troen pointed out that Jews celebrate religious holidays and light candles on the Sabbath, yet elect a civilian government and exercise independence from religious law. This “messiness” does not mean that Israel has failed to be either democratic or Jewish. “There is no one-way to shape a democratic society,” said Professor Troen. Israel’s democracy, unlike the U.S. model which is focused on the individual, is centered on the collective—that is the Jewish people. This idea of the collective is expressed in the Israeli Declaration of Independence which opens by asserting that Israel is a state to be created by the people. But as Professor Troen pointed out, this is problematic because this concept of the collective does not extend to Israel’s Arab minority. While Arab-Israelis are entitled to vote they are treated as second-class citizens. So how does Israel reconcile being a democratic state while treating its Arab citizens undemocratically? “Israel is not a perfect democracy,” argued Troen. “Nobody gets a score of 100, Israel gets a passing grade except in its relationship with its Arab population.” The high-handed treatment of the Arab minority in Israel is justified by the constant state of war, said Troen. “The only model that will work in Israel is a model where nobody is happy and nobody gets everything,” he declared. Professor Troen ended his lecture with an unsettling conclusion. “There is no possibility of a bi-national state,” asserted Troen. “Israeli society will not bear the burden of two different cultures.” For more information about the Fares Lecture Series, please contact The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Tufts University. S. Ilan Troen is Visiting Professor in Israel Studies at Brandies University. He is Lopin Professor of Modern History and Chairman of the Department of History at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, a senior member of the Ben-Gurion Research Center and founding editor of Israel Studies a bi-annual journal published by Indiana University Press. He is the author of Planning Zion: The First Century of the Zionist Settlement Experience and European Jewry: Between America and lsrael; Jewish Centers and Peripheries 50 Years after the Holocaust. |