How the Law of Return creates one legal order in Palestine

The chapter argues that colonialism is the critical framework of Israel’s constitutional identity in Palestine. It rejects claims of Israel being a ‘Jewish and democratic state’ granting group rights like liberal democracies do. Rather, both the Law of Return and the ‘value’ of ‘preserving a Jewish majority’ constitute the very essence of the Constitution in Palestine that targets Palestinians as such and refuses to recognize them. A case study shows that unlike the plurality of written laws that characterize colonial regimes, the Israeli legal system introduces a unique model in that racial domination is created mostly by decisionism of the Court, outside of the written laws, and regardless of any rule of recognition.