Ruth Gavison (Jerusalem, 1945) is one of the most prominent names of the Israeli legal community. She’s a strong character and she’s written prolifically on the theory on how to make compatible the interests of the Jewish motherland with a secular democracy, which often has made her the object of many polemics. The last time, (that this happened, was) when she was proposed by the Sharon Government to the High Court. She has participated in the Seminar “Quo Vadis Israel: analysis and reflections on a changing society”, organized by the European Institute of the Mediterranean within the framework of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Spain and Israel.
What does it mean for Israeli politics the new party of Sharon? Is it the rupture of the traditional dichotomy right-left and its substitution by a mere peace ideology pack?
Not quite. Israeli society finds itself at a critical point of a long and deep process of change. What we are facing now is more a return to the time when the state of Israel was founded. At the end, sixty years later, after so much blood and agony, we are trying to become what we should already have been in 1947. For us, it means not only to come back to the Zionist claim for the self-government of Jews, but also to the acceptance of a Palestinian state. Until now we were trapped between a left wing determined to lead this process but politically unable to carry it out, and a right wing that could do it but had no intention of doing it. Sharon has shaped a centre pillar that can do it and wants to do it. And this is a reason for great hope.
To what extent does this hope depend on Sharon’s personality? What would happen if Sharon’s health failed?
If polls foresee such success it is an evident sign that his political project meets the deepest interests of the Israeli majority to find a way out to conflict. Without Sharon, neither the new Kadima Party nor what it represents would disappear.
It is taken for granted that Hamas will win by a landslide in the elections at the Palestinian Parliament. To what extent can this eventuality alter Sharon’s plans? According to a poll, most of Israelis welcome negotiations with them.
If I claim respect for Israeli democracy, we also have to respect Palestinian democracy. We will however face a problem, though, and a serious one, if Hamas wins but persists in its negative to recognize Israel’s right to exist and it insists to maintain its own militia. I don’t think it’s right to prevent this scenario by prohibiting Hamas’ participation in the election; what we need is to make them correct their positions. And here is where you, the EU, have a role because you have the power of money. In my opinion, the reversal of these two attitudes would be a basic condition to renew the aids to a Hamas Palestinian Government…
At the Hebrew political agenda we find again two polemics: the writing of a constitution and the transfer to the future Palestinian state of Arab citizens (Palestinians) from Israel. Is this the moment of constituency that you talked about? How should the state of Israel be defined?
I don’t have any doubt that the majority of Israelis would like Israel to be a state as committed to be a democratic country, which gives equal rights to all their citizens, Jewish and non Jewish, as to continue being the only country where Jews exercise their right to national self-determination. The problem that has been raised today is that, in the name of democracy, many Arab citizens in Israel would like Israel to stop being a Jewish state and become a neutral one. And many Jews consider this unacceptable as well as a threat, as then they would not have any place in the world in which to feel at home. Consequently, and in order to be fair with everybody, the best is to grant a state to each people and to every citizen the right to choose where to live: either as a citizen totally integrated in one’s country or within a minority – with all what this implies – in the country of the other. Thus, in order to guarantee the Jewishness of Israel, it will be very important to live next to a Palestinian state, and –hopefully- a democratic one.
*Ruth Gavison is an Israeli jurist. 
