Some critics of Israel accuse it of being an ethnostate — which means a country or nation that limits citizenship or political participation to only one ethnic group, often by law. However unlike most modern ethnostates, Israel grants full legal rights to all of its citizens, regardless of their ethnicity or religion.

About 21% of Israeli citizens are Arab — including Muslims, Christians, and Druze — and they vote, serve in parliament, work in the judiciary, and participate in all areas of public life. Israel also has Circassian, Bedouin, and African minority communities, along with Jewish citizens from dozens of ethnic backgrounds. Israel’s Basic Laws provide legal protections for all residents of Israel – regardless of religion or ethnicity — and the Israeli Declaration of Independence affirms political rights for all of its citizens, a significant difference from most modern ethnostates.

In the United Arab Emirates, for example, foreign-born residents make up 89% of the population, but have limited or no pathway to citizenship, while Emirati nationals constitute approximately 11% of the population, but have full citizenship rights. In Saudi Arabia, citizenship is primarily granted to individuals of Arab descent, and the naturalization process for non-Arabs is exceedingly rare, effectively tying full political rights to ethnic background.

In 2018, the Israeli Knesset passed the Nation-State Basic Law, which emphasized the Jewish character of the State of Israel, affirmed Jerusalem as its capital, and recognized Hebrew as the nation’s official language. While this new law does not limit the rights of non-Jews enshrined in the Basic Laws, it did anger some Arab and Druze citizens who served in the Israeli military, as Arabic was downgraded from an official language to “special language” status.