When dozens of Israeli ultra-Orthodox rabbis signed a formal edict prohibiting Jews from renting or selling real estate to non-Jews, the ensuing uproar was reassuring to those of us working for a democratic, pluralist Israel.
Within days, nearly 1,000 rabbis worldwide signed onto a letter originated by my organization, the New Israel Fund, condemning the ruling and calling on rabbis in Israel to take a forceful public stand against it. Remarkably, the signatories included rabbis from across the religious spectrum, including many who may disagree with other aspects of NIF's progressive agenda.
Prime Minister Netanyahu himself criticized the edict, as did the leadership of Israel's Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem. Additionally, since several of the offending rabbis are actually on the government payroll as official rabbis in their municipalities, the Israeli Attorney General is looking into the possibility of suspending them for incitement -- a crime in Israel since the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin.
These swift and clear denunciations are critical reassertions of Israel's core commitment to democracy and equal rights for all its citizens. And yet, there are disturbing counter-trends afoot and an essential injustice embedded in the nature of Israel's religion-state relationship.
A recent poll showed more than half of Jewish Israelis support the discriminatory edict, and not all are followers of Israel's harsh ultra-Orthodox establishment. A right-wing group is attempting to put teeth in the ruling by investigating Jewish Israelis who do rent or sell to Arabs and publicizing their names for public ostracism. On the legislative front, a bill making its way through the Knesset would further legitimize discrimination by allowing towns and villages to consider "social suitability" in prospective residents, providing legal means to exclude immigrants, gay couples and other marginalized groups as well as Israeli Arab citizens.
Those who would attempt to defend these actions point out that Israel has faced an existential threat since its founding, and that Arab-Israeli citizens, the primary target of state-sponsored exclusion, do not generally support Israel as a Jewish state. Analogies to Jim Crow and other discriminatory systems are thus overstated and flawed, goes this analysis. And despite the promise of Israel's Declaration of Independence, to establish a state that "ensures complete social and political rights to all its inhabitants, irrespective of religion," Israel does have the right to protect its identity as a Jewish homeland and to promote the cohesiveness of the Jewish people.
All this may be true. But to those of us who have been working for years on issues of religious pluralism and civil rights, the fact that bigots in Israel are now willing to say publicly what they once said privately is indicative of a threat to Israel far more worrisome than the imagined danger of real-estate transactions between neighbors.
That threat lies in the growing power of Israel's ultra-Orthodox establishment -- its marriage of convenience with right-wing ultra-nationalism and its enshrinement as the sole arbiter of Jewish peoplehood and Israeli identity. Americans who think of Israel as the "only democracy in the Middle East" might be surprised to discover that almost every personal life-cycle choice there is allotted to the religious sphere. There is no civil marriage, divorce or burial. The definition of who is a Jew, which is key to Israeli citizenship for new immigrants under the Law of Return, is firmly in the hands of the fundamentalist, ultra-Orthodox rabbinate.
It would be one thing if alternate interpretations of Judaism could contend fairly in the marketplace of ideas. But there is no level playing field. In Israel, there is only one official, state-sponsored, state-supported expression of Judaism, and it is not the Judaism of the majority of the world's Jews. Indeed, Israel's official Jewish authorities refuse to acknowledge non-Orthodox denominations of Judaism at all.
Israel must debate, re-examine and reform the relationship between religion and state. It must establish a civil sphere to provide every Israeli with freedom of religion and conscience. Citizenship and personal identity must be a matter of impartial legal procedure, no longer held hostage to the decrees of ultra-Orthodox authorities. All streams of Judaism -- and for that matter, Christianity and Islam -- must find welcome in a democratic Israel.
This prescription is not anti-Orthodox. The New Israel Fund proudly supports a number of Orthodox groups who bring moderating and pluralist voices to their own community. Many Jewish Israelis are observant or traditional in practice, and even the majority who are secular respect the history and traditions of Judaism. That will not change in a more pluralist framework. There is no contradiction between identifying Israel as the Jewish homeland, the traditional home and haven of the Jewish people, and at the same time insisting that legal theocracy and democracy are ultimately incompatible.
No Israeli rabbi should be silenced for voicing even contemptible opinions. Any Israeli is free to listen to his or her rabbi and follow that guidance -- unless that guidance amounts to incitement or contravenes the basic civil rights of others. When in the public debate on this issue one rabbi actually claimed that "racism is inherent in the Torah," the state-sponsored power granted to the ultra-Orthodox hierarchy makes that bigotry much more than just opinion. The confluence of religion and state allows ignorant ethnocentricity to attain the power of law.
We progressives have faith that reason, tolerance and inclusion can and will trump extremism, bigotry and the politics of division. But this cannot happen when the legal deck is stacked against this vision by an ultra-Orthodox establishment with the power of the state behind it. That is not liberal democracy. That is not the impartial rule of law. And in the most important sense, as we demand that Israel reflect the best of our ethical tradition, as well as our tragic history of exclusion and persecution, it is not Jewish, either.
Daniel Sokatch is CEO of the New Israel Fund.
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Honest because he believes his opponents have reasons to believe he is wrong, and fairly states those reasons. That said, I disagree with this: " All streams of Judaism -- and for that matter, Christianity and Islam -- must find welcome in a democratic Israel."
There are anti-democratic, supremacist strains of all three religions and they must be kicked to the curb in the interests of a decently democratic society.
But the over-arching concern Israelis must keep sight of is the need to defeat those Palestinians who have in the past killed fellow Palestinians who favor the one step that has any chance of bringing long term peace--recognizing that Israel won the war and the losers must sue for peace on the winner's terms.
No UN mandate has invalidated that reality anywhere in the world, including Israel. Let's hope we can someday outlaw war and its consequences, but until then be honest enough to treat the outcome of the Israel-Arab war as we have all others. The winner sets the terms for peace, not the UN.
A psychological reason may be that the pace of change has accelerated to the extent where people crave security and meaning to profound events affecting them, but that are out of their control. Fundamentalism gives them a clear and consistent message, which is comforting.
A spiritual reason, if one is so inclined, may be that humanity is on the verge of a breakthrough and the forces of evil find fertile ground in the minds of men (and women) to confound the best laid plans of God to unify all of his people(s). After all, if one believes in God and the invisible church of saints, angels and masters (collectively, organized good), then one must believe in organized evil.
An organizational behavior reason may be that business, political, social and religious institutions find that exclusionary doctrines to "divide and conquer," so to speak, are effective at maintaining their power bases. If one can divide people into "us" and "them" along one or more variables (and there are so many ways to do so in this world), then one can build and consolidate a nice fortune.
It is probably a combination of all of the above and more. All I know is that we are all in this together and no one gets out unless we all do. I still don't know why, but I know it is wrong.
Some want to think of Israel as a democracy.
Pffft.... you do not subjugate and discriminate against your minority citizens in a democracy as our founding fathers several hundred years ago knew all to well how the majority can treat the minority in a way that is not only unethical but criminal.
What about the Palestinians in the refugee camps of the west bank and Gaza that own homes in Israel ? Are they allowed to go back? Are they Israelis? Can we even ask this question without censorship?
Its been like that for decades
This is not some new thing.
Remember Pollard and the many other Israeli spies that got away ...
Remember the USS Liberty!
Israel has not ever been a democracy
There really is no argument on the other side of that. You don't let everyone vote. End of debate
What is Israel but a massive refugee state, formed after a "flooding" of the Levant with European Jewish "refugees" based on some absurd notion that after 2000 years Diaspora Jews still had the right to claim "refugee" status to a nation that no longer even existed.
While there is no doubt that some of the rightward tilt in Israel can be attributed to its immigration policies and the influx of Jews from the Soviet Bloc, a lot of it seems to be a natural progression from the death of Rabin and second intifada onward (especially the fact that these views are widespread among the not very religious.
I don't know what the path back to secularism is for Israel but I hope they find their way. Given how things have gone in the US I'm not that confident that there is a "natural" progression to secularism, and given the role of super-high orthodox birth rates and immigration in Israeli demographics, I am not very hopeful.
If I had to pick a person to symbolize what Israel has become it would be John McCain. That's pretty sad.
In the end, we get the politicians we deserve. Democrats didn't bother to vote in the mid-terms and we have a Republican Congress. If Israelis don't work to together to get rid of these dangerous right-wing politicians, your country will be destroyed. I want Israel to succeed very, very much.
God Bless
The same problems that are their now have been there since the start. Religious and ethnic discrimination