NEW YORK – Following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement affirming his intention to move forward the judicial overhaul next week, T’ruah, a rabbinic human rights organization representing over 2,300 rabbis and cantors in North America, condemned this continued attack on democracy.
In a statement, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, said:
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has made clear that he will sacrifice the future of Israel for his own political ambitions. Just hours after the Knesset passed a law preventing the Attorney General from declaring the Prime Minister unfit to serve as a result of the criminal case against him, Netanyahu not only announced his intention to continue the assault on the judiciary and on any checks and balances, but also suggested that he personally will be the one to guarantee civil liberties.
This is the move of an autocratic leader—to insist that the wellbeing of the state and its people depends solely on him. As Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara warned Netanyahu on Friday, his announcement that he will personally intervene in the judicial overhaul is also an illegal violation of conflict of interest.
“In addition to protecting his own position, by significantly weakening the judiciary, Netanyahu and his extremist allies are opening the door to even more far-reaching moves to expand settlements, evict Palestinians from their homes, and otherwise violate the basic human rights of those living under Israeli jurisdiction. This week, the government also overturned parts of the 2005 Disengagement Law, thus allowing the legalization of outposts in the northern West Bank, and the settlement of this area, evacuated of settlers nearly two decades ago. Previously, the government effectively de jure annexed the West Bank by removing key functions from the military and placing them in the hands of Betzalel Smotrich in his role in the Ministry of Defense.
“In less than two weeks, we will celebrate Pesach, the holiday that recalls the liberation of the Jewish people from enslavement under an autocratic leader who believed himself to be invincible. Though it takes 400 years for the Israelites to be freed, they persevere and ultimately prevail. T’ruah continues to stand in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of Israeli protestors who have been in the streets for nearly three months fighting for democracy. We will fight any attempts to weaken the rule of law; to undermine human rights protections for women, LGBTQ people, and Palestinians and Israelis alike; and to further entrench and expand occupation and annexation.”
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights mobilizes a network of more than 2,300 rabbis and cantors from all streams of Judaism that, together with the Jewish community, act on the Jewish imperative to respect and advance the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call upon Jews to assert Jewish values by raising our voices and taking concrete steps to protect and expand human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.