It is Our Responsibility to Remove the Mask and Say: Ben Gvir Seeks to Harm Israel’s Democracy | Orly Erez-Likhovski

Itamar Ben Gvir’s invitation to speak to high school students at Blich High School constitutes a moral failure. The fact that he serves as a Member of Knesset does not warrant his invitation to a public school.

The phenomenon named Itamar Ben Gvir is, in my opinion, Kahanism in disguise, and is, thus, a threat to Israel’s democracy. Ben Gvir does not hide his admiration of Baruch Goldstein, Kahane and his legacy, and his aversion to the way Kahane was denounced by Israeli society. It seems that after we succeeded in disqualifying three of his friends from running for Knesset, the founders of “Otzma Yehudit – Jewish Power”, Michael Ben-Ari, Baruch Marzel and Ben-Zion Gopstein – Ben Gvir understood that in order to avoid his own disqualification from running for Knesset he needs to downplay his opinions.

But we should not be confused – Ben Gvir continues to advance Kahane’s racist ideology: instead of saying that all Arabs need to be expelled from Israel, he talks about the expulsion of those who are disloyal or the expulsion of supporters of terrorism. The Supreme Court may not have disqualified Ben Gvir’s candidacy, but it said harsh things about his positions, and stated that the evidence brought against him – for example the statement that “Jewish power is to expel our enemies, anyone who is disloyal gets a one way ticket […] Jewish power is money to the neighborhoods – and not to our enemies” – is “significant and extremely disturbing” and that they bring Ben Gvir even closer to that forbidden line that will bar him from running for Knesset.

In my opinion, the Ben Gvir of 2022 is much more dangerous than Ben Gvir of 2019, because the Supreme Court’s harsh statements have been forgotten, and it seems that his ideology has become legitimate, partly because of the tremendous exposure he has received in the media, with the support of former Prime Minister Netanyahu and his followers. Ben Gvir may not have been disqualified by the Supreme Court, but his opinions are extreme and dangerous.

Ben Gvir’s invitation to speak with students at Blich High School [in Ramat Gan] constitutes a moral failure. [Blich High School has become a symbol of democracy, as it holds mock elections before every national election, and in 1977 predicted the victory of Likud, and they still get press attention during election season to this day.] The fact that Ben Gvir was not disqualified, and that he serves as a Member of Knesset, cannot justify inviting him to a public school, especially one that serves as a symbol of our democracy, and one that, by law, should educate its students to love all people, develop a respectful attitude towards human rights, and educate towards the pursuit of peace and tolerance.

A school’s principal must know, and if they don’t – should be reminded, that with his words, Ben Gvir encourages hatred of the other, undermining the judicial system, and the destruction of the basic values of Israel’s democracy. It is our responsibility to remove the mask and say things as they are: Ben Gvir, like his predecessors, seeks to destroy Israel’s democracy and deny the rights of the Arab citizens of Israel. We must not allow him to do so.

Translated from the Hebrew op-ed published September 8, 2022 in Maariv.

Not Everyone is as Lucky as Kultida Lev

By: Adv. Noa Diamond, LACO Attorney
Published in “Haaretz” on December 15, 2021

Over the past month we have witnessed the struggle waged on behalf of Danielle Lev, a 7-year-old Israeli girl whose mother was threatened with deportation by the Population and Immigration Authority. Had they succeeded, Danielle would have been deported to Thailand alongside her mother. I do not know Danielle or the details of Kultida’s legal proceedings, but her story is only too familiar to me and is the same story of hundreds of Israeli children.

The Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC)’s Legal Aid Center for Olim (LACO) provides legal representation, from a broad understanding of the biblical commandment “and you shall love the stranger”. LACO represents people who have tied their fates to the State of Israel, created families here, and who need assistance in acquiring legal status in Israel for humanitarian considerations. Over the past two decades, LACO has represented hundreds of cases, mostly of women, whose spouse is an Israeli citizen, but the relationship ended before our client was able to complete the naturalization process. The reasons behind the dissolution of the relationship vary – divorce, death of the Israeli spouse, and Intimate Partner Violence at the hands of the Israeli spouse.

Nearly all the women we represent are mothers. Because their children have an Israeli father, the children are also Israeli citizens. And here is the particularly painful and outrageous part: the vast majority of naturalization requests filed by these women, mothers of Israeli children who were here as part of a legal naturalization process, are denied. Again, and again the CEO of the Population and Immigration Authority, as the Chairman of the Inter-Departmental Committee for Humanitarian Matters, tells our clients that they must leave Israel and take their Israeli children with them. To Nepal, Liberia, Hungary, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Philippines, Colombia, Uzbekistan – each of which, according to the Immigration and Population Authority, is a legitimate destination to deport Israel children, whose only crime is that they were born to a parent with the wrong passport.

The State of Israel signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and thus is obligated to put the child’s best interests first in all decisions. In practice, the Population and Immigration Authority justifies its position that the best interests of these Israeli children will not be harmed by their mothers being sent to a foreign country with such infuriating rationale, it is hard to believe that they put them in writing. For example, a five-year-old boy is “a tiny thing” and thus there is nothing stopping him from being uprooted from the only place he knows; that a little boy can stay in touch with his Israeli father “via technology” or visits; that it is best that a little girl is far away from the father who beat her mother, as if she was not already punished enough by being exposed to violence, she is now further punished by being exiled from her country; that a boy suffering from severe ADHD and will not have access to the medical treatment in Russia that he receives in Israel can find “natural alternatives to Ritalin” there; or that a ten-year-old boy is not “assimilated” enough into Israeli society.

Based on these justifications, one may think that the Population and Immigration Authority cares about these children, but problems such as limited access to education, welfare and healthcare, danger of starvation and disease that are found in many of the destinations for deportation – do not bother the Population and Immigration Authority at all.

“An Israeli minor does not grant status to their parent”, representatives from the State repeat over and over during proceedings against the expulsion of mothers and their children, they add that foreigners lack “the granted right” of settling in Israel. When the goal is to remove foreigners from Israel, even when they are the parents of Israeli citizens, any explanation or excuse for the disgrace of deporting native Israeli children from their country is apparently legitimate. Danielle Lev was saved, but according to the Ministry of the Interior’s current policies it seems that the rest of the Israeli kids in the same situation will be meeting at border control while having their Israeli passports stamped as they are forced out of their country – one kid at a time to their separate flights to different remote corners of the world. All that remains is to wonder if when the time comes, the State of Israel will be able to locate their addresses in Nepal, Liberia or Colombia to send them their IDF conscription order.

Read the original Hebrew text here.

There’s More Than One Way to be Jewish

By: Adv. Orly Erez-Likhovski, IRAC Director
Published in “Israel Hayom” on November 3, 2021

Irit Linur’s anger, in her column published in this newspaper on 10/29/2021, was directed at the launch of the Progressive Jewish Lobby, led by a Reform rabbi (MK Gilad Kariv), a secular MK (Michal Rozin), and an Orthodox MK (Moshe Tur-Paz). Linur particularly resented Minister of Transportation Merav Michaeli’s remarks, according to which the words Judaism and progressive were once synonymous, and her additional remark that the Western Wall, which has become an ultra-Orthodox synagogue, must be freed. Linur claims that the Reform Movement has failed in Israel and that the default of Israeli citizens is Orthodox Judaism.

There would be no point in responding to Linur’s writings had they only been appallingly simplistic, but they are also inaccurate, to say the least. Indeed, spreading fake news has become legitimate nowadays, but nevertheless it is worthwhile to put things right.

Let’s start with what should be known to all. Reform Judaism represents the spirit of Judaism over the years, a Judaism that believes in debates and the seventy faces of the Torah. Indeed, it is actually ultra-Orthodox Judaism, whose observance is the same as two-hundred years ago, that is the true Jewish reform (according to the determination of the Hatam Sofer that “new is forbidden from the Torah”, a statement which is in itself is new). The whole concept of one perception of Judaism, which is connected to the government, that in turn showers it with funding and then claims that it is the only way to be Jewish, is an invention that only exists in the State of Israel.

The claim that we want to correct “broken” Orthodox Judaism misses the whole concept of Jewish pluralism, which is promoted by the non-Orthodox movements and the progressive Jewish movement. No one is trying to prevent Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews from exercising their freedom of religion (the claim that we demanded mixed prayer in all parts of the Western Wall is false). All we want is for Reform and Conservative Jews, and Orthodox Jews who do not identify with the ultra-Orthodox Rabbinate – to be able to exercise their right to freedom of religion according to their belief. That is the essence of democracy, which praises the values of equality and freedom of religion.

No one claims that the Reform Movement is the biggest Jewish movement in Israel, but let us remind Linur that in a democracy the minority also has rights. According to a survey performed by the Jewish Public Policy Institute in 2018, 800,000 (!) Israelis identify as Reform or Conservative. Linur cannot decide on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Israelis regarding what is their Jewish identity, nor can she determine that in the State of Israel there is only one way to be Jewish.

The Reform Movement not only works to gain equal status, it also paves the way for the moderate voices in Orthodox Judaism which the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate does not represent, and which offer alternatives to the Rabbinate in the areas of marriage, conversion, kashrut, and congregational rabbis – alternatives that rely on the achievements of the Reform Movement. None of which Linur takes into account.

Linur’s claim that Reform Jews have no interest in Judaism, unless they can harness it in favor of advancing civil rights, is nothing short of astounding. Beyond the fact that advancing civil rights in a democratic state should be a noble cause, Linur completely ignores the fact that it is the ultra-Orthodox Rabbinate which has been using religion as an instrument to gain political status and public funding for decades.

As for her claim that Ezrat Yisrael, the egalitarian section of the Western Wall, is open and well maintained, free from the influence of rabbis, but abandoned most of the year – where should we even begin? Maybe from the fact that in its current neglected state, Ezrat Yisrael does not constitute a true alternative to the main prayer plaza? Or from the fact that in contrast to the huge budget allocated to the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, the State does not spend a cent on advertising Ezrat Yisrael, which is why most people are not even aware that an egalitarian alternative exists? From the fact that ultra-Orthodox groups often come and attempt to take over the egalitarian plaza? Or from the fact that despite all of the above, Ezrat Yisrael is bustling with families and individuals who come to pray and celebrate Bar or Bat Mitzvahs?

Lastly, one must point to the hypocritical claims according to which the Reform Movement opposes the revival of the Jewish people in Israel. Beyond the fact that Reform Jews are involved in all avenues of Israeli society and that the Reform Movement in the Diaspora supports Israel politically, economically and morally, Linur ignores the blatant anti-Zionism of ultra-Orthodox Judaism – a fact that does not stop Linur from siding with the ultra-Orthodox monopoly over Judaism.

So, while Linur continues to tarnish the Reform Movement, we will continue to offer a sane and tolerant Judaism, and Israelis will continue to turn to the Reform Movement for holiday celebrations and meaningful life cycle events. While Linur continues to preach that she alone knows what is right (and mainly what is wrong) for all of us, we will continue to advance the revolutionary concept anchored in the Declaration of Independence, of equal rights regardless of religions, race and gender, and freedoms of religion and conscious.

Read the original Hebrew text here.