Sermon: Vayetze: The Jewish State Bill & Equality in Israel

Written by Writings & Sermons by others — 30 November 2014

Last Tuesday morning I was in Jaffa, in Israel.  My mission for the morning was to go and buy a new tallit to replace the one which I have worn for twenty five years and which was getting tough to clean.  In Israel buying a Tallit is not difficult.  It’s the only Jewish State in the world, so shops to help you equip yourself for Jewish life are around and there is great creativity in what they offer.  The Tallit I am wearing is the result of the expedition.  My aim for the rest of the day had been to go to Jerusalem on the bus from Tel Aviv and spend many hours learning at the Israel Museum, which I had not visited since it had been overhauled four years ago.

 

That morning though four Jews at prayer and the Druze policeman who had come to their aid had been murdered in Har Nof, the neighbourhood on the same side of Jerusalem as the museum.  I asked the couple who ran the shop which sold me this Tallit whether it would be difficult to get to Jerusalem and whether it was sensible to do so.  They said to me that most likely I would be safer in Jerusalem than walking on the streets of London and that everything would be working as normal.

 

They were right and I spent an enriching afternoon and evening learning at the Israel museum in Jerusalem.  The only sign of the awful events of that morning that I could see was a heartfelt protest by local residents at the road entrance to the Har Nof district, which our bus passed, an outpouring of grief to be shared by commuting Jerusalemites.

 

This was the Jewish State last Tuesday for me- a beautiful Tallit easily obtained, a city where a Jew can easily find a place to pray, a museum which tells the Jewish story in archaeology and with unique documents and scrolls, murder in a Synagogue by terrorists,  and a Druze policeman, Zidan Seif who laid down his life to try to save the lives of his fellow citizens.

 

When the United Nations passed the resolution partitioning Palestine in 1947 that resolution referred 29 times to the West part of the resulting state being Jewish.   Israel’s Declaration of Independence of the 6th Iyyar, the 15th May 1948 makes it clear that this is the Jewish state – the fulfilment of what the Hatikvah, Israel’s National Anthem, says is the “dream of two thousand years, to be a free people in our own land.”

 

What though is the character of that Judaism?   I am very proud that the Israel’s Declaration of Independence goes on to spell it out like this:  “THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

 

The Declaration of Independence says that the Judaism which underlies the character of Israel is that which espouses freedom, justice, peace and equality.  It is based on the respect for different cultures, and plural language.  It is the Judaism of beating swords into ploughshares from the prophet Isaiah, of sitting every man under his fig tree with none to make them afraid from the prophet Micah, it is the Judaism of protection for the orphan, the widow and the stranger in the gates, where enacting  justice and loving mercy and walking humbly with God are the ideals for which the State and all its citizens aim.

 

Its Judaism is very broadly and inclusively defined enabling Reform and Orthodox Jews to live within it, secular Jews to find their place and connect with Jewish values and, if we could ever reach a point of really constructive co-existence with the Arab, Druze and Beduin minority of 1.6 million non-Jewish Israelis – a Jewish character of the State of Israel which can include them and respect them.

 

The bill sent to the Knesset on November 23rd threatens this Jewish character of the State of Israel in the guise of being a piece of legislation to protect Israel as a Jewish Nation State.  It was drafted by two Likud politicians and comes as a response to the challenge that Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President has given by refusing to officially recognise the Jewish character of Israel and perhaps to fears that Israeli Arabs in the Galillee region might seek autonomy from the Jewish State in the future.   The Jewish Nation State bill is I feel deeply flawed.  I am just a Rabbi in a diaspora Synagogue, I love Israel but I do not live there – so it is highly significant that the President of Israel, Reuben Rivlin is a very strong authority who has publicly disavowed this bill.

 

In the same week as a the Prime Minister of Israel and his ministers honour a Druze policeman who died protecting Jewish worshippers being murdered in a Synagogue they approved constitutional legislation that would enshrine his inferior citizen status in relation to Jews. (Economist Nov 29th 2014 p56).

 

The bill when you first read it does celebrate the democratic nature of Israel and refers to principles from the Declaration of Independence.  The problem is in the detail. It’s not as bad as it was – early drafts of the bill considered removing Arabic as one of the official languages of Israel.  But still the bill, if it is passed, will privilege what it calls Jewish law in the courts system of Israel.  It states:  “Jewish law shall serve as a source of inspiration for the Knesset.”  That would mean that the current ever narrowing interpretation of Halachah which the Israeli Orthodox Chief Rabbinates promulgate, the interpretation which says that women may not pray and read Torah at the Western Wall, that questions Arab rights to live anywhere in the country just as Jews can, could end up as the determinant of Israeli legislation rather than the Supreme Court of Israel’s fairness and pursuit of justice and equality for all in accord with the Declaration of Independence.

 

The bill says that it aims to “uphold the individual rights of all citizens.”  Sound right on the face of it – but underneath that intention is what Israeli MK Hilik Bar (Jerusalem Post 27th November 2014) explains as the removal of protection for the equality of non-Jewish groups in Israel, Druzim, Beduin, Muslim and Christian Arabs.  The result could be that the only part of the Israeli population allowed to develop its group institutions, its education system, its civil society would be the Jews, that cannot be right.

 

As Anshel Pfeffer wrote in the Jewish Chronicle yesterday ( Jewish Chronicle 28th November 2014) “constitutional legislation should be about building a nation, bringing disparate parts of society together, establishing a joint identity and ensuring security.” This bill seems to be about erecting barriers and quashing development.   The Declaration of Independence gives Israel the kind of Jewish character which includes.  It should not be hedged in.

 

Our Torah portions of the past weeks on the face of it have also been about the potential to include the people you are scared of or feel are in opposition to you.  We have seen pacts of friendship between Abraham and warring tribal leaders.  We have seen Laban and Jacob find a way to make up with each other after a very troubling co-existence.  We are about to see Esau and Jacob come together with a brotherly embrace after twenty one yeas of enmity apart.  That is the Torah we read and enjoy.

 

But alongside this is a tradition of Rabbinic interpretation which says the reconciliation never happened.   That Esau did not kiss Jacob but rather bit him.  That Abraham’s sons Isaac and Ishmael and the people descended from them, Jews and Arabs can never live together.  That Laban, in the words of some right wing Haggadot, sought to destroy Jacob – he was dishonest in his pact of friendship.   We have a choice – to accept this negative and unconstructive interpretation of Jewish life and history – forever threatened, forever seeking enemies we need to keep down.  But much better way surely is to seek positive engagement with those we live among, here in the UK and in Israel where Jews have 1.6 million non-Jewish neighbours whose happiness and fulfilment we will share. Surely the second positive way is the one which gives a future worth having – lihyot am chofshi b’artzeinu – to truly be a free people in our own land.