The State of Israel was established in 1948 as a democratic state for the Jewish people. Although in the pre-state period the leaders of the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine) had begun discussions about the formation of a constitution, Israel has never adopted a formal constitution. From the beginning, the debate over the constitution concerned not only the content of the constitution but also the appropriate method of adopting it. The debate reflected the profound ideational divide over foundational issues, particularly the deep disagreement between a religious and a secular vision of Israel as a Jewish state.

The inability of the framers of the constitution to reach a consensus regarding the appropriate relationship between Jewish religious law and the institutions of the modern state led them to deploy a strategy of avoidance and to postpone the drafting of a written constitution. Despite an overwhelming secular majority in the first Knesset (Israel's parliament), the political leadership of the country preferred not to make controversial decisions regarding the foundational aspects of the constitution, adopting an incrementalist approach instead.