Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People - Rafapal

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by the police during unarmed protests, he expressed profound amazement at
the argument that "the very definition of the state as a Jewish one implies a
nonegalitarian element." 82 Most states are national states, he argued, so why
can't Israel be one? How is Israel different from England? "In England there is a
Jewish minority and a Muslim minority who enjoy equal rights. Nevertheless,
they cannot complain that England is the country of English people, associated
with the Anglican Church, and that the dominant language, in which
alone it is possible to act in the public sphere, is English. The minorities cannot
demand the appointment of a Jewish or Muslim monarch, nor equal status for
a different language." 83
Evidently we cannot expect an Israeli professor of law, eager to prove that
his state is a perfect democracy, to employ more precise terminology. Although
it is true that the word "England" is often used as synonymous with Britain,
such carelessness is out of place in a complex discussion about nation and
nationality. Since 1707 England has been part of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain, with Scotland, Wales and (since 1801) Northern Ireland. The historical
and cultural background of the joint realm is ecclesiastical, but Christian
England does not intervene in the marital choice of a Jew who lives there, who
may wish to marry a Christian Scot, or even a Muslim of Pakistani origin.
Needless to say, England is not the state of the world Anglicans, as Professor
Friedman's Israel is the state of the Jews of the world—nor is it even the state
of the English, even though English is the official language in the kingdom. A
Jew cannot be the monarch of Great Britain, but neither can an Englishman
who is not a member of the royal family. In any case, the hegemon in Britain
is not the reigning monarch but parliament, and Michael Howard, the son of
a Romanian Jewish immigrant and leader of the Conservative Party in the
early twenty-first century, might have become British prime minister (instead
of making aliyah to Israel).
Britain is the state of all its citizens—English, Scottish, Welsh, Northern
Irish, Muslims who immigrated and became citizens, even Orthodox Jews
who acknowledge only the divine sovereign. In the eyes of the law, they are all
Britons, and the kingdom belongs to all its citizens. Were England to declare
that Britain is the state of the English, as Israel is of the Jews, then even before
the children of Pakistani immigrants began to protest, the Scots and the Welsh
would break up the United Kingdom. Furthermore, Britain is a multicultural
country, and its principal minorities have long enjoyed considerable autonomy.
82 Shlomo Sand, "To Whom Does the State Belong?," Haaretz, October 10, 2000.
83 Daniel Friedman, "Either Confrontation or Integration," Haaretz, October 17,
2000.