In the heart of an already lacerated Middle East, Israel is now experiencing a profound transformation: a strongly national-religious government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, is pushing the country towards an increasingly Jewish definition of identity. But this process, observers and religious leaders warn, risks narrowing the spaces of coexistence and rights for non-Jewish minorities.

A government between nationalism and religion

The current Israeli coalition – composed of parties such as Religious Zionist Party, Otzma Yehudit, Shas and United Torah Judaism – is considered by many analysts to be the most conservative and religious in the country’s history.

The 2018 Law of Nation-State, which defines Israel as the ‘nation-state of the Jewish people’, is the emblem of this: a text that, while formally maintaining certain rights, subordinates the democratic dimension to the ethnic-religious definition of the state. Critics and jurists see in it a step towards an “ethnic democracy”, in which the full citizenship of Arabs, Christians and Muslims appears subordinated to Jewish identity.

Messianic symbolism and philosophical tensions

Exponents such as Bezalel Smotrich or Itamar Ben-Gvir expressed aspirations for an Israel based on Jewish law (halacha).

These visions, which some call messianic, call into question the separation of religion and state: the tension between secular democracy and the confessional state is no longer merely theoretical, but political and everyday.

From a philosophical point of view, this trend raises the age-old question: can a democracy survive if it is founded on an exclusive religious principle?

Places of the sacred under attack

On 17 July 2025, an Israeli bombardment hit the Holy Family Church in Gaza, the only operational Catholic place of worship in the Strip. The attack left two dead and several civilian refugees injured. Condemnation was unanimous: the Vatican spoke of a “morally unjustifiable act”, while theUN called for an independent investigation for possible violation of international law.

Israel expressed ‘deep sorrow’ and announced an investigation, claiming it had not targeted religious sites. However, similar incidents have also affected mosques and other Muslim places of worship.

A symbolic reading: the sacred as a battlefield

The destruction of places of worship – Christian and Muslim – is not just collateral damage, but a symbolic act: the reduction of the space of the sacred ‘other’.
(In philosophical terms, it is a denial of otherness: eliminating or striking at what represents the other is a way of redrawing the spiritual and political order of the land.

Beyond politics: law, ethics, religion

From an ethical-legal perspective, recent events raise crucial questions:
– Is the right to the protection of religious sites actually protected?
– What balance can exist between national security and respect for the sacred?
– Is a truly pluralist democracy still possible in a state that calls itself ‘Jewish’ not only in faith, but in structure?

Israel between identity and exclusion

Israel continues to confront its own founding paradox: being both Jewish and democratic. Today, the balance seems to tip towards the first dimension.

Laws, wars and political rhetoric indicate a progressive reduction of space for minorities.
This is not a declared project, but a reality that manifests itself in facts: in the geography of territories, in fundamental laws and even in destroyed places of worship.

If Israel wants to remain a living democracy, it may have to rediscover the deeper meaning of the term ‘covenant ‘ – not just with God, but with the other man.