Constitutionalism, Nationalism & the Dismantling of Democracy. Part One.

The rise of nationalist sentiments across the democratic West, often accompanied by religious fundamentalism, masks & warps ethical approaches to political problems, and only serves to undermine our democratic freedoms in the name of protecting those same freedoms.

David Ben-Gurion (left) signs the Declaration of Independence held by Moshe Sharett with Eliezer Kaplan looking on at the Tel Aviv museum on Rothschild Boulevard, May 14, 1948. Image from +972 Magazine, by Israel GPO, PRI OR/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

“As for Western democracy, I’m for Jewish democracy. ‘Western’ doesn’t suffice. . . The value of life and human freedom are, for us, more deeply embedded thanks to the biblical prophets than Western democracy.”

David Ben-Gurion, September 1948, in response to questions on why the word ‘democracy’ did not appear in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

Constitution or not a Constitution…

In 1948, David Ben-Gurion, well aware of the growing awareness of human rights and calls for universal equality, and the possible legal consequences of this movement, decided to reject Israel’s need for a constitution.

In a recently unearthed speech, translated for the first time in 2021, he doesn’t directly acknowledge this as being one of the reasons that the new state of Israel…