Although the court spent years trying to avoid making a clear-cut ruling, its hesitation provoked great concern on the right that the judges might eventually overturn one of Zionism's core principles: "Judaisation" of the land in Israel. So fearful of this was Netanyahu's government that it passed a law in 2011 giving a statutory basis to the admissions committees.
In Hazony's words, the new "Jewish State" bill's purpose is "to re-establish the previous status quo on issues of Jewish national self-determination."
A related concern on the right is the Supreme Court's interpretation of earlier legislation -- specifically The Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty, passed in 1992 -- as implying a right to "equality." The court has argued, even though equality is not mentioned in the law, that it is a precondition of human dignity.
Despite the implication, however, Zaher said that in practice the Supreme Court has been loath to use the principle of equality implied in the 1992 Basic Law to overturn the structural discrimination against Palestinian citizens.
She noted that when the court heard a petition in September against the Admissions Committee Law, it narrowly upheld the legislation, arguing that the court did not have the resources to investigate "hypothetical and theoretical claims."
"That was after the admissions committees had been operating for decades, ensuring that Arab citizens are excluded from hundreds of communities across Israel," she said.
Enemy agentsAccording to Klein, Netanyahu's need to strengthen the discriminatory basis of legislation, giving it a constitutional status, has a more fundamental motivation related to Israel's wider conflict with the Palestinians.
He pointed out that, in rejecting any partition of the territory of "Greater Israel" which includes the occupied territories, Netanyahu and the right faced a demographic challenge. Half the population under their rule would be non-Jews.
"Palestinian citizens are part of that 50 percent. They support the creation of a Palestinian state, making them in Netanyahu's eyes part of the enemy camp. They put the identity of an enlarged state at risk."
He added: "This bill puts ethnicity above citizenship, and is one tool to circumvent this threat. It means anyone who identifies with the Palestinians is a traitor. That is why Netanyahu tells Palestinian citizens to move to the occupied territories. Because in his view most of them are enemy agents."
Haaretz warned this week that, if Netanyahu's measure passed, it would remove Israel "from the community of democratic nations, and give it a place of honor instead beside those dark regimes in which minorities are persecuted."
The reality, however, may be somewhat different. As Palestinian lawyers and human rights groups in Israel explain, Israel has long dwelt among such dark regimes. Netanyahu's bill simply helps to shine a light on that fact.
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