"Indeed [Israel is a country of] all of its citizens," Cheshin said, "Jews and non-Jews are 'shareholders' in the country, and the statement that the state is 'a state of all its citizens' does not detract from the state's being a Jewish state, and, if you will, the state of the Jewish people.

"We should remember and know – how could we forget? – that the Jewish people did not have – did not have and doesn't have – another country other than the State of Israel," Cheshin said, "but within the country, all of the citizens of the state have equal rights. And in our view, it would not be right to rule that someone who says that the State of Israel is a 'state of all its citizens' is denying the existence of the state as a Jewish state, in and of itself."

Supreme Court Justice Mishael Cheshin in his ruling handed down almost a quarter-century ago, in April 1996, a month before Netanyahu's first term as prime minister began.