After years of heated political debate, in July 2018 Israel’s parliament narrowly passed a new basic law entitled “Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People.” Dubbed the “Nation-State Law,” it has elicited widespread criticism both inside and outside Israel, with critics denouncing it as harmful, divisive, or, at best, unnecessary. This paper begins by examining the contents of the nation-state law to assess its significance. It argues that while it has no immediate practical consequences, it could have far-reaching long-term implications by legally justifying Jewish privileges and discrimination against non-Jewish citizens of Israel, and elevating Israel’s Jewish character over its democratic character. The paper then places the nation-state law in the historical context of the decades-long balancing act between Israel’s democracy and its Jewishness, and the struggle between liberalism and majoritarianism in Israel. It also places the nation-state law in the current political context of growing political intolerance and ethnic chauvinism in Israel, and the numerous challenges in the past few years to democracy and the rule of law in Israel by rightwing populist politicians. Such challenges are by no means unique to Israel. In fact, the tactics and ethos of rightwing populism in Israel bears many similarities with that recently evident in countries like Hungary and Poland, and even the United States.