著者

鶴見 太郎

出版者

日本中東学会

雑誌

日本中東学会年報 (ISSN:09137858)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.27, no.2, pp.103-123, 2012-01-05 (Released:2018-03-30)

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This research note is an introductory study for an exploration of the historical-sociological and not political origins of the definition of the state of Israel as a “Jewish and democratic state.” It is hypothesized that some of these origins can be found in the Jewish and Zionist experience in the Russian Empire, where a majority of Zionists were born. Even before the emergence of Zionism, some East European Jewish enlighteners believed that the West European concept of civil rights denied nationality (nationhood or peoplehood) of the Jews. At the time of the 1905 Russian Revolution, political issues emerged in which nationality played a significant role. The Zionists then considered that every nationality should be secured by a democratic state, on the grounds that access to one’s nationality should be included in individual rights. The Zionists believed that any democracy should protect the nationality of its citizens. The Zionists also held that the survival of every nation inevitably depends on sociological laws, demographic and socioeconomic conditions in particular. This standpoint would require the nation to have a territory in which the nation constitutes a majority, providing a background for the norm that approves the privilege of the Jewish nationality in Israel.