A Constitution has long been a matter of national debate, largely revolving around the Declaration of Independence's terming of the country as a "Jewish and democratic state." Broadly speaking, those who support the Constitution wish to emphasize the "democratic" aspects of the State, while the religious community says that Israel's democracy must chiefly be Jewish.
The ultra-secular Meretz party also opposes the Constitution in its current format. A Meretz spokesperson told Arutz-7 that as currently formulated, the document does not protect the rights of minorities, "such as women, those who wish to marry outside the Rabbinate, Arabs, non-Orthodox Jews, and the homo-lesbian community."
Scheduled to speak at today's session are Law Committee Chairman Michael Eitan, who has invested much of his personal prestige and many hours in work on the Constitution, as well as Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Opposition Leader Binyamin Netanyahu, and Justice Minister Tzippy Livny.
The Law Committee will present a 9,000-page report - on a CD - to the Knesset today, including:
• various proposals for a constitution,
• protocols of the 87 Law Committee sessions that dealt with the preparation of a constitution,
• explanatory and background material written by experts,
• position papers presented to the Law Committee by various interested groups, and more.
Committee member Rabbi Yitzchak Levy (National Union) explained, "The problem is that those who want to frame this Constitution wish to neutralize the concept of Israel as a Jewish state with a Jewish character. Israel must be a democracy - but the democracy cannot override its Jewishness. For this reason, we cannot agree, for instance, to a Constitution that does not grant a special status to the Sabbath; they [those working on the Constitution] don't even want to agree to keeping the status quo."
"Similarly," Levy continued, "there must be clauses governing what is known as personal status - marriage, divorce, conversion and the Law of Return - according to Jewish Law. Otherwise, the principal purpose of the State, namely, to preserve the Jewish Nation in the Land of Israel, will be lost. Admittedly, these are very difficult to formulate in a way that will satisfy everyone."
Committee Chairman Eitan takes the opposite approach.
"I want the religious and hareidi MKs to feel that they have influence, and that we take their opinions into account," Eitan recently told the HaTzofeh newspaper, "but they should know that there will never be a Committee Chairman who will fight to grant Judaism a special status in the democratic state of Israel. The Nation of Israel has the best constitution in the world [the Torah], which has preserved the nation for thousands of years. We are not making a new constitution for the Jewish People, but we have the State of Israel which also has non-Jews, and we have to give them a Constitution."
MK Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party) said this past week,
"The proposal for a Constitution is not as innocent as it looks. True, it does not make absolute proposals on religion-and-state issues, but the very presentation of such possibilities gives legitimacy to the separation of church and state in Israel... Its main chapter must relate to the State of Israel as a Jewish state; the State's commitment to the Jewish religion symbolizes the very heart of the Jewish State."
Today's Knesset vote is largely symbolic, as the next Knesset will have to continue the work done thus far on the Constitution. MK Eitan said he hopes that the Constitution will be completed by Israel's 60th birthday - May 2008.