Israeli Knesset Building
Browsing New Voices today, I see that I am not the only one that is seriously concerned by the legislation that passed the Knesset on Sunday. Since BrandonSpringer delved into the issue already (and it’s worth a read), I will skirt the politics as much as I can, and will instead focus on a more personal response.
Since the Knesset passed the Loyalty Oath, I have been trying to read as much as I can to try to understand how it can be spun positively, but to no avail (see The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, and Challenge, as well as something closer to my home in Vancouver for examples).
What struck me when reading about this controversial bill is that this issue is different for me. It is not different because it irks me more than anything the Israeli government has done in the past, but rather because I am now living here. So long as that is the case, I cannot act like I used to at home, saying that no matter how aggravated I am about it, ultimately it is ‘their’ — the Israelis’ — problem, and I can continue worrying about issues that are closer to home, both literally and figuratively.
Given that realization, I have concluded that I cannot satisfactorily say that I am disappointed by this or that law and then do nothing about it. In order to make any difference — even the limited difference of one individual — I must change the way I behave towards a state whose laws (if passed) offend me tremendously and threaten to stretch the definition of a “Jewish and democratic state” to absurdity.
Towards that end, I feel that, if this legislation passes, I can quite easily take a stand by actively refraining from coming to Israel so long as such a Loyalty Oath is required only of people who are not Jewish. Speaking practically, I am not going to pack up my bags and fly home in protest, but after I return home, this seems like a reasonable measure of protest.
Making this decision public will undoubtedly result is criticism from fellow Jews, as it has always (in my lifetime) been extremely difficult to voice criticism of Israel and it’s policies – even if that criticism is meant to encourage betterment on Israel’s part and is made with the best interests of everyone at heart. However, I have spent too many years of my young life being inundated with facts about the start of the Shoah to not connect the dots here – and while that comparison is made all too often, it behooves everyone to realize just how sadly ironic it is that the Jewish state, in the year 2010, would be embarking upon the path of instituting legislation that applies unevenly based on religion.
Benjamin Barer is studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, one of Masa Israel‘s 180 programs.
Looks like your love for israel is about as real as Pardes is religious- not much! please let us readers know if you get any response whatsoever from anyone who cares in the slightest about you boycotting. get over self-righteous self!
I’m not sure I understand what the problem is – the Law of Return discriminates on the basis of ethnicity (obviously not a religion because many people classified as “Jews” are not religious and are not even Jewish l’halakha). The country is premised on being a Jewish country. Others are welcome to come, but that’s the premise. Germany similarly does nto grant citizenship to non-Germans. Your problem seems to be just that one version had only non-Jews taking it. I assume that was some kind of concession to kharedim who feel that they aren’t allowed to say such things. I think it’s an interesting discussion that instead of discussing, you just summarily dismissed. How you’re comparing that to the Holocaust is beyond me.
On a side note, I think all Orthodox Jews who don’t live in Israel are protesting its to some extent. They love Israel, believe they have a mitsva to live there, but yet they don’t. For me, it’s their socialist and fascist policies, tax collection, etc. For you, it’s a loyalty oath (although one affects daily life and one doesn’t).
@Gary Hess, maybe you should consider that it is precisely Benjamin’s love for Israel that compels him to write this. He says: …even if that criticism is meant to encourage betterment on Israel’s part and is made with the best interests of everyone at heart. Take him at his word – you’re being far more self-righteous than he is.
(I’m crossposting this from http://blog.newvoices.org/?p=4705&cpage=1#comment-11850 please let me know if that’s contary to accepted practice here)
I’m honestly puzzled at the way the debate on the citizenship oath for new immigrants is shaping up. It seems to be all heat and no light.
First of all, many countries (including the US) impose an oath of allegiance on new citizens. Several of these include allegiance to specific political systems (such as constitutional monarchy). Why is what Israel doing so outlandish?
The legitimacy of the state of Israel lies not in it being a state where all citizens have equal rights (though I think we would all agree that they should continue to have such rights). The legitimacy of the State lies in it enabling the Jewish people to actualize their rights to their home land. A state that predicated a Jew’s the right to citizenship on their willingness to swear allegiance would not be legitimate. It would be no more legitimate than revoking a born American’s citizenship because he was a member of the Communist Party.
A Jew, by definition has the right to live in Israel. A non-Jewish immigrant is only petitioning for that right. That means that the former cannot be denied his/her right without a very good reason (Meyer Lansky might be a good example) and a non-Jew could be rejected for any reason.
I have nine kids (baruch HaShem). They are all entitled to UK citizenship (in my merit) and US citizenship (in my wife’s). If a UK or US government were to insist on them taking some oath of allegiance before granting them the right of abode in Britain or America, it would be an illegitimate act. On the other hand, my son-in-law, who is an Russian-Israeli, can claim no right to US or UK citizenship and those countries could apply such conditions as they see fit on admitting him. A Jew born anywhere in the world, as a member of the Jewish nation, is entitled to Israeli citizenship. Discrimination in immigration policy between those who are members of the nation they are seeking entrance to and those who are not (but want to be), is legitimate and commonplace.
We should not be afraid to face up to the basic arguments about Israel and Zionism.
(BTW The idea of making the oath mandatory for all immigrants (whether under the Law of Return or not) is a bad idea. If a Jew, who is born with the right to citizenship, can only exercise it after swearing some sort of oath, what’s to stop making the citizenship of Arabs who are born with the right to citizenship also conditional on swearing an oath?)