T’ruah is deeply concerned about the composition of the new Israeli government, made up of only right-wing and religious parties. This is the narrowest coalition in recent history–both in numbers and in perspective. As rabbis, cantors, and Jewish lay people committed to building a state of Israel on the foundations of freedom, justice, and peace, we are especially troubled by the appointments of Naftali Bennett as Minister of Culture and Ayelet Shaked as Minister of Justice.
Bennett leads the Jewish Home Party, which represents the settlement community, and has openly supported annexing most of the land in the West Bank without granting any rights to the Palestinians who live there. Ayelet Shaked has described Palestinian children as “little snakes,” and has referred to efforts to deport and imprison Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers as having “saved the country from a crawling conquest.”
The easy choice would be to give up on achieving our dreams of a just, secure, and peaceful Israel side by side with a Palestinian state. But we refuse to give up. Instead, we recommit to working to build an Israel that treats all of its citizens – of all religions and national origins – with equal respect, that implements a humane policy towards asylum seekers and upholds refugee rights, and that actively works to end its military occupation of the Palestinian territories.
And we won’t give up. With the determination, strength, and chutzpah we learn from our ancestors, we will continue. In this week’s Torah reading, God commands the Jewish people, “You shall not profane My holy name, that I may be sanctified in the midst of the Israelite people — I the Lord who sanctify you, I who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God” (Leviticus 22:32-33). The lesson of our liberation from Egypt, this verse teaches, is the obligation not to profane God’s name by mistreating others created in the divine image.
Ringing through our heads is the refrain of Ehud Manor’s classic song “Ein Li Eretz Acheret” (I Have No Other Country), which says, “I will not be silent, even if my country has changed; I will not stop reminding her, and I will keep singing in her ears until she opens her eyes.” Today, we commit to singing louder until every human being is treated with dignity.