Now that Israel’s parliament has narrowly passed a law characterizing the country as principally a Jewish state, how does Israel view itself and how would it like the outside world to see it?

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the bill’s passage as a “defining moment” when in actuality it is a contentious move. The legislation essentially defines Israel first and foremost as a Jewish state. Israel is not a Jewish state. It can be called the State of Israel, as has long been recognized by the Palestinians, but not Jewish.

There are 1.8 million Arabs in Israel. They are Israeli Arabs, many of whom identify as or with Palestinians. On paper they supposedly have equal rights under the law but in reality are treated as second-class citizens. They face discrimination and do much worse than Israeli Jews when it comes to services such as education, opportunities, health and housing. The new law enshrines the right of national self-determination as “unique to the Jewish people” — but not all citizens, just Israeli Jews who it seems are more equal than others. It defines sovereignty and democratic self-rule as belonging solely to the Jewish people and no one else.

The law also reiterates the status of Jerusalem under Israeli law, which defines the city as the “complete and united capital of Israel”. Here we run into more problems. Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel, even though the US administration would like it to be. Jerusalem remains a disputed territory, with Palestinians seeing its eastern part as the capital of their future state. Israel’s claim over the city remains a key point of dispute between the two sides and between Israel and almost the entire international community which does not recognize the city as the Israeli capital.

The law stresses the importance of “development of Jewish settlements as a national value”. If Israel sees Jewish settlements as a national value and continues to promote them in the Palestinian territories, not only can Israel be expected to establish more illegal settlements on Palestinian land, but it cannot command confidence when it says it is still committed to the two-state solution. The law further erodes the credibility of Israel’s professed support of an independent Palestinian state.

The law singles out Hebrew as the “state’s language”, effectively downgrading Arabic which has for decades been recognized as an official language alongside Hebrew. Arabic will no longer be the country’s official second language, as it has been since the early years of the state. Instead, it grants Arabic “a special status in the state”. The law, however, does not explain what the “special status” means. Studying Arabic would allow Israelis to understand Arabic-speaking Israeli citizens, to communicate with them and to get to know their culture. But no effort is made to spur Jewish school students to learn the language described by the Education Ministry’s circular as being “of great importance to the state”.

The issue of Israel as a Jewish state has become increasingly important in recent years. Fears over the high birthrate of Israeli Arabs, which could challenge Israel’s Jewish majority, have led to calls to highlight or enshrine the Jewishness of Israel into law.

The law constitutes a new development: it effectively doubles down on longstanding inequality in Israel. The new law challenges the basic concepts of equality, which even Israel’s declaration of independence promised to all its inhabitants. Only a right-wing government like that of Netanyahu could pass a law that declares that only Jews have the right to self-determination in a country where 20 percent of the nine million-strong population are not Israeli Jews. The legislation is racist and a form of apartheid aimed at creating two systems within one country.