ISRAEL IS a nation-state; it is not a religious state or the state of a religious group.

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Encountering Peace: Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people and all its citizens

By GERSHON BASKIN
JPost.com

ISRAEL IS a nation-state; it is not a religious state or the state of a religious group. The intention of the Zionist movement in calling for the creation of a state for the Jewish people was not to create a state for the Jewish religion. Israel is a civil state, and its laws are civil laws, not religious laws (with the exception of laws of personal status which have been inherited from the Ottoman Empire, and the time has come to remove that exception).
Peace between the State of Israel and the future state of Palestine will be based on two nation-states for two peoples, and just as there is a sizable Palestinian minority in the state of the Jewish people, we can all hope that there will be a sizable Jewish minority in the state of the Palestinian people, all living in peace, democracy and equality.

The writer is co-CEO the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, and an elected member of the leadership of the Green Movement party (www.ipcri.org).