The Citizenship Regime Change Behind Israel’s Rule-of-Law Crisis

Abstract

This article delineates the relations between the judicial overhaul launched by Israel’s right-wing government in 2023 and the mechanisms of Israel’s control over Palestinians, demonstrating that they are two parts of a regime change. The essay traces a series of changes in Israel’s citizenship regime the past decade: the enactment of an anti-terrorism law and a nation-state law that defined the exclusive right of Jews to self-determination in Israel; the domestic application of surveillance and control practices developed in the occupied territories; and finally legislation allowing the revocation of Palestinians’ citizenship and the de facto annexation of the occupied territories.