Oded Goldreich. A name that probably doesn’t mean anything to most Israelis.Either because they never heard of him or have already forgotten. But Oded Goldreich, a professor in mathematics and computer science at the Weizmann Institute of Science, has become a symbol of how politics has taken over democracy as well as most aspects of life in Israel and how your political views may become a completely unexpected obstacle in events in your life when it will depend on the whims of small politicians.
In the beginning of the year, the committee making decisions on who receives the Israel Prize at the upcoming Independence Day presented its list of names to the Education minister, Yoav Gallant. On the list wa the name of Professor Oded Goldreich. Gallant, who needs to approve the list before it is finalized, apparently had someone whisper in his ear that Goldreich is a “leftist” and he decided to withhold the prize from him until his ministry could clarify allegations that Goldreich supports the BDS movement (which is illegal in Israel). After Goldreich vehemently denied that he supports the BDS movement, Gallant decided that the Ministry needs to examine if Goldreich’s denial is “sincere”, and summoned him for a meeting to the ministry. Goldreich refused to cooperate with the hearing and after even Gallant realized that there are limits to his abuse of power, Goldreich was asked to explain his views in a written document. The end of the story came on the last day of Gallant’s (miserable) tenure as Minister of Education, when he decided that the decision to withhold the prize to Goldreich was final.
Oded Goldreich has been active politically as many Israelis are, and has signed public letters and petitions that often were directed at Israel politics in the Occupied Territories. In one of these petitions the European Union is urged, to stop all cooperation with the Ariel University because it is in the Occupied Territories. In another, the Methodist Church is requested to stop investing in companies that enable the Occupation to continue. Several other documents were dug up by Gallants minions, but none showed that Goldreich supports the BDS movement. Even a letter to the Editor of the Guardian (from 2005) in which Goldreich argues that boycotts may be beneficial to enforce International Law, does not go as far as supporting the BDS movement (and, in 2005, the BDS movement was still making its first steps only, mostly outside of the Israeli eye).
One must assume that this activity by Goldreich was more than sufficient for Gallant to indeed mark him as a “Leftist”. But being a Leftist is (still) not a crime in Israel and the (somewhat exaggerated) claim that Israel is a democracy, would imply that different opinions may be held and even expressed, even if the opinions are not in line with the views of the ruling party in a democratic government. But apparently, expressing your opinion is allowed, only if it is in line with what ruling ministers believe and with the government that Gallant was part of, the “democratic” system would only allow opinions that he and his Likud party agree with. It appears, that in Israel, the system is democratic, as long as you are Jewish (which is another, even sadder story) AND if you are right-wing.
Gallant left the Education Ministry (and we may hope for good) and a new government was established.
The new Education minister, Dr. Yifat Shasha-Biton was informed that it is within her power to reverse the decision on the rewarding of the Israel Prize to Oded Goldreich, but she decided not to get involved and leave things up to the courts. It is impossible to discern her motives in refraining to interfere, but maybe her political views are not so dissimilar from Gallant’s and she is not unhappy with the decision as it stands. An unwelcome reminder, that while Israel has a new government, with all the hope that brings, Israeli politics is still Israeli politics.
But this week, the Israeli Supreme Court (finally) came with a formal decision and it overturned the decision of Gallant, arguing that the views of Goldreich, as expressed in the documents supplied to the court, are not “unusual” enough to justify the denial of the Israel Prize. In this decision, the Court sides with Attorney General Mandelblitt who submitted to the court that in his opinion, the view that Gallants decision “deviated from reason and was illegal”. A positive development you would think. However, while the decision to overturn Gallant’s decision was unanimous, the Court added a clause to the verdict (with one Judge dissenting) that the New Education Minister, Dr. Shasha-Biton must be given the opportunity to decide whether to affirm or deny the awarding of the Prize to Goldreich.
And this is the democratic time bomb the Israeli Supreme Court did not want to get close to. The Court justifies the clause allowing Shasha-Biton the final decision, with claims not to want to interfere in the decisions of a capable administrative body, but it in fact throws the decision back into the political arena, while the whole fight was in the first place to keep it out of that cesspool.
The Court did not have the courage to state clearly that decisions of as she calls it, a ”capable administrative body”, such as the committee deciding on the award of the Israel Prizes, should be binding and that the moment politics gets involved, foul play is, and must be expected, in particular in Israeli politics.
So, now the heavy weight of the decision rests on the back of Dr. Shasha-Biton. But her decision will do much more than award or deny the Israel Prize to Oded Goldreich. The moment she interferes in either way and will proclaim anything else except the acceptance of the decision by the selection committee, she will acknowledge that politics still has the last word in Israel and that “Democracy” in Israel will give you your democratic rights, only if you are on the “right” side.
I hope you found this article interesting and I welcome any comments you may have.
If you register on the site, you will be receiving a notice when new articles are posted.
