Jewish Law or Democratic Rule?

In January of 2020, the High Court in Israel ruled that during Passover, hospitals do not have the right to prevent visitors or patients to bring non-kosher (“hametz”) food into the facility. The court declared that it is an infringement on basic rights of citizens to eat what they prefer, even if it means eating food that is considered not kosher for Passover.

With last year’s Passover, various ways were used to circumvent this ruling, ranging from requesting people not to bring non-kosher food into the hospital to a blatant ignoring of the ruling by having security guards inspect bags to search for non-kosher food.

This year, Health minister Horowitz instructed the hospitals in the clearest possible manner that they must uphold the law and cannot prevent people from bringing non-kosher food.

As may have been expected. (right wing) religious politicians were quick in screaming gewalt and coalition whip Idit Silman from Yamina immediately brought out the preferred argument and she invoked the holocaust to demand that Horowitz allow the hospitals to break the law.

The use of the Holocaust in this case, like in most others is despicable and shameful but apparently when it is used to “defend” Jewish values, it is allowed. Invoking the Holocaust has become a frequent argument in a wide array of arguments from the War in Ukraine to the Corona health crisis, but it does little more that cheapen the memory of its victims. In particular, Israeli politicians should be aware of this and respect the honor of the Holocaust victims and not use their memory for their own small-minded political aspirations or their own narrow goals, even if these goals include the alleged preservation of Jewish values and the Jewish character of Israel.

Another aspect of Ms. Silman’s behavior is more problematic. She is now demanding that the Health minister instructs the institutions under his authority (the hospitals), to break the law. What she is in fact demanding is that Horowitz, and the Israeli government will place Jewish law over Israeli law, in other words, to declare that Israel is a Jewish and not a Democratic State.

It has been long argued and declared that Israel is a Jewish and Democratic State but this incident again shows that Israel can simply not be both. The clashes between the Democratic State and the Jewish State of the past few years are too numerous to recall but in more and more cases, the Jewish State prevails and apparently the population either agrees to this or simply condones it. Politicians today use the Democratic framework to actively promote and encourage the formation of a Halachic Jewish State, thereby in effect destroying the system they are a part of and cynically exploit its freedoms to promote the Jewish State, which, being a religious entity, not democratic by definition.

It is high time that Israel settles this (enormously sensitive) issue, and its democratic politicians must take action now as long as the “Halachic” proponents are still in the minority. The Jewish character of the State of Israel can and must be preserved, but its rules and decrees must be made subject to democratic rules to insure the equal rights and freedoms for all its citizens.

In the end all citizens will benefit, including the Orthodox ?Jewish population, even if they do not (yet) realize this and certainly will not admit it.

I hope you found this article interesting and I welcome any comments you may have.

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