Israel calls itself a democracy while insisting that the rights of people of the faith supersede the rights of people of the land. Palestinians who have had to endure 60 years of being occupied, displaced or discriminated against, are now coerced – either through Israeli legislation or Israeli demands at the negotiating table – to formally recognise the cause of it all. The crux of the demand is for Palestinians to surrender the historic right to their homeland to any Jewish outsider wishing to call it his or her own.

Strangers taking over my house by force is catastrophic, me responding by handing them the deed is insane. Undoubtedly for Palestinians, recognising Israel as a Jewish state surpasses any other obstacle to peace. It is a preposterous proposition to abandon one's legitimate rights once and for all.

In fact, it is the 3 million voiceless Palestinian refugees in the neighbouring countries with everything to lose from this pledge. Many have held on to the keys of their homes since 1948 — keys unlocking bitter memories of displacement and hardships lived ever since, but still representing the longing and right to return. These keys will never unlock doors in the cities and villages of today's Israel, but clinging on to them and saying "no" to such proposals as the pledge are the only means left to preserve awareness of their plight.

As for ethnocracy, it is defined in the Webster's dictionary as a political regime instituted on the basis of qualified rights to citizenship, with ethnic affiliation, defined in terms of race, descent, religion, or language, as the distinguishing principle. In Israel's case, being Jewish is what grants one the privilege.

Israel, like other ethnocracies, is characterised by uncompromising control – the legal, institutional, and physical instruments of power deemed necessary to secure dominance of one ethnic group over all others.