This Week in Israel
The sign Ezzy made for the protest in front of the Israeli Consulate in Montreal.
Dear friends,
A few people have reached out to me with concern and questions over this week's events in Israel. Here's a summary of events, with some reflections.
Tisha B’Av this year began early. On Monday morning, the sixth of Av the extremist Israeli government ignored millions of protesters out in the streets and passed a law designed to give the executive branch unchecked power. You can’t make this stuff up: the law removed the court’s ability to use the “reasonability clause,” which it has used many times to prevent the government from doing something completely unreasonable. The last time it was used was when Netanyahu wanted to appoint Aryeh Deri to Minister of the Interior, only a few years after Deri had been released from prison for corruption and bribery as Israel’ Interior Minister. This seemed unreasonable to the courts, so Netanyahu worked to undo the law in order to reappoint him.
This is the first of a series of laws that would effectively end the separation of powers in Israel, and in the process allow Netanyahu off the hook for the corruption, bribery and breach of trust cases that he is currently fighting in the courts.
But this isn’t just about corruption. It’s about the nature of the State going forward. The day after the law was passed, Ultra Orthodox members of the governing coalition brought forth a Basic Law, the closest thing Israel has to a constitution, that would make Torah study considered national service. This would solidify the current state of affairs for ever: ultra orthodox Jews get paid to study Torah, while all the other Jews go to the army.
Though the law was shelved for now, the direction is clear: a corrupt theocracy. In a country that will be 25% ultra orthodox within twenty five years (33% of the Jewish population), and where the ultra orthodox have long abandoned their non-nationalist leanings in favor of massive financial support this is not surprising.
This is why Israelis are in the streets in such huge numbers (recent polls show 2 in 3 Israelis oppose Monday’s legislation), and why Israelis and Israel lovers everywhere are so broken this week. Tisha B’Av is the day on which Habayit charav, "the home was destroyed." That’s what it felt like on Monday: We are witnessing the dissolution of the Israel that was.
On Wednesday evening there was a special gathering of mostly Israelis to mourn together. We gathered on the roof of Kane Street Synagogue to sing classic songs we all know, speak our pain and anger, and cry as we listened to each other expose our inner fracture – all in Hebrew. On the traditional day of the destruction of our collective home we came home to our beloved language. Say what you will about the injustice embedded into the Zionist project, about the ethnocracy that calls itself a democracy, about the oxymoron called “Jewish and democratic” (all certainly up for debate) no one can take away the revival of the Hebrew language from the Jews of the 19th and 20th centuries. We came home to that greatest accomplishment of our people, and to fret over the possibility of losing the one place where Hebrew lives.
None of us expect it to happen overnight. Practically speaking there are a few possibilities for what happens next with the legal coup. In September the court will discuss the appeal. If it sides with the people and strikes down the law, the government will either accept the court’s decision, which would effectively end the coup, or refuse to accept it. If it refuses, which Netanyahu has already signaled may be the case, the country will be thrown into a constitutional crisis. Then it will come down to who the armed forces will listen to, the government or the court. The head of the Internal Security Services has already told his team that in that case they will side with the court. That’s good news. But the court may choose not to intervene, in which case the government will continue to the next set of laws, likely fire those in positions of power that are in its way and appoint more corrupt cronies, all of which would spiral the country further toward dictatorship.
Vulnerable groups such as LGBTQ, women, leftists and of course non-Jews are scared. Civil war is a real possibility. My friends and family express a strange combination of sadness, anger, despair and determination. I think a lot about my nephew, Inbal these days. In March he's supposed to join the army. He probably saw the huge sign that kids his age unfurled in Tel Aviv: לא נמית ולא נמות בשירות ההתנחלות, "We won't kill and we won't die in service of the settlements." He knows the injustice. He's been hearing about the thousands of reservists refusing to serve a dictatorial government. And he's also just a young dude who wants to do what his friends are doing, to serve like his father and grandfather did.
As the vote took place Monday morning on my computer’s live stream, my sound system was mysteriously playing in repeat Rabbi Nachman’s song: “Even in the hiddenness within the hiddenness the Blessed Holy One exists.” We don’t know where this is all heading. Certainly, the shades have come off of the eyes of the complacent Israeli center. That may end up proving more significant than any law this coalition can push through. And maybe this will all shake up the dilapidated structure of the country into a new, more just one.
The most significantly hopeful thing I learned in that gathering Wednesday night was about traffic. Last week, when tens of thousands of Israelis were trying to get to the mass march up to Jerusalem organized by the protest leaders, people were stuck for hours in a massive traffic jam. I heard reports of people peeing in bottles as they wait, of old men and women climbing mountains by foot to protest. But the most amazing thing was hearing that in this traffic jam people did not honk once, nor did they try to cut the traffic line. This is unnatural behavior for Israelis. And possibly a sign of a deep consciousness shift. Who knows?
For now, the protest leaders in New York are vehemently calling for American Jews to join the protests here. They make a difference. American Jewish voices against the legal coup make this government nervous. Look out for notices about upcoming demos, and join us in making our position clear. Democracy, however flawed, is better than the alternatives.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Misha