Newsletter Weekly Guest Statement
Danny Hochberg
Co – President UPJ
The last days of Rome
May Golan is the Minister for Social Equality and Minister for Women’s Empowerment. During a debate with opposition lawmaker Gilad Kariv, a Reform rabbi and member of the Knesset opposition, she said he was “marrying dogs in your delusional synagogues.” She also mocked Kariv’s association with Women of the Wall, the group that advocates for egalitarian prayer practices at the Western Wall.
I am sure, that beyond the disgusting and insensitive comments made, it is not lost on anyone reading this, just how diametrically opposed the comments Golan made, are to the portfolio’s she holds in the current Government.
Last week, Itamar Ben Gvir released a video in which he can be seen taunting the activists as they kneel on the floor, hands bound. He is a member of Knesset and Minister for National Security. His actions have caused great damage to Israel’s reputation and have been condemned, both in Israel and abroad.
We are likely all aware of the proposed “Kotel Bill” (Western Wall Law), a highly controversial Israeli legislative proposal led by MK Avi Maoz that would grant the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate sweeping control over the Western Wall. It threatens to criminalise egalitarian and non-Orthodox prayer at Judaism’s holiest site.
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation is slated to vote this week on a proposal that if passed into law would invalidate the legitimacy of non-Orthodox conversions in the context of potential immigration and citizenship. The Law of Return offers citizenship to Jewish immigrants, including converts. An amendment proposed by Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman- chairman of the Knesset’s influential Constitution, Law and Justice Committee- would define conversion to Judaism, in this context, as only that carried out “in accordance with halacha,” or Jewish religious law.
A law that will expand the power of rabbinic and Sharia courts in Israel and grant them authority to act as arbitrators in limited civil matters was passed in the Knesset plenum in March. Critics of the law have expressed strong concern that women’s rights could be harmed due to the nature of the rabbinic courts. They have also warned of broader democratic implications, arguing that the legislation may deepen division between the haredi community and the rest of Israeli society, and that it could harm the country’s status quo.
A new version of the controversial legislation to increase government control over the role of the attorney general, set to be voted on this week in a Knesset committee, includes a clause that would make it significantly more difficult to indict senior officials, including the prime minister. Professional representatives of the Justice Ministry, the State Attorney’s Office, and the police oppose the new clause, saying, respectively, that it will harm the separation of powers, negatively impact the professional discretion of the attorney general, and complicate the filing of indictments
All of the above reminds me of the Pesach song “Chad Gadya” about a series of animals and the events that follow. Each event happens as a result of the previous event, escalating the chaos. As we head towards an election in Israel, the date yet to be confirmed but required by the end of October, the final days of the current Government are filled with legislation that has achieved an urgency that belies the damage it will cause in Israeli society and the greater Jewish world. All of this at a time when Israel remains at war on two borders and across the Middle East.
The challenge for Jews everywhere is best expressed by the State’s first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, when he famously outlined the Zionist response to the restrictive British White Paper of 1939 (which severely limited Jewish immigration and land purchases):
“We must assist the British in the war as if there were no White Paper, and we must resist the White Paper as if there were no war.”
Despite the antics of the current Government and its members, we must continue to offer our full support to the people of Israel. But we must also not be afraid to express criticism of Israel if it strays from the values we hold dear, or the expectations of the wider community of nations.
These are challenging times for Jews everywhere, and we must show strength in the face of the dangers before us. This does not require unity, for surely the strength of the Jewish people is in our diversity: of religious belief; opinion or background. But we are all governed by a clear set of values that requires us to show respect to each other, as well as to others.
The current government, which has steered Klal Yisrael through the most difficult of times, sometimes with heroism, is past its use-by date. Let us all pray that a future government will lead with greater humility and care. That it will be a government of healing that will restore respect and pride in Eretz Yisrael and bring peace to all the peoples of the Middle East.
