Israel: Orthodox Religious Parties Shaken by Supreme Court Ruling on Law of
Return
The Israeli Supreme Court ruling on the application of the Law of Return
threatens ultimate dilution of the political power of Israel's Orthodox
religious parties, and thus has the potential to shake up the upcoming
election's dynamics.
by Miko Peled
March 05th, 2021
By Miko Peled
JERUSALEM - In a groundbreaking eight-to-one decision, the Israeli Supreme
Court recently ruled that the Law of Return, which grants citizenship to any
Jewish person who comes to Israel, applies to anyone who converted to
Judaism while in Israel through a non-orthodox conversion. This ruling has
created a great deal of political turmoil and anger among Zionist-religious
parties and the State chief rabbinate.
In a political system like the one in Israel, where small political parties
are crucial to any coalition government and are often the determining factor
as to who becomes prime minister, this distress is problematic. In the
Israeli Knesset, the religious parties wield a great deal of power and quite
often act as kingmakers, giving their votes to one of the two larger parties
and thus sealing the fate of Israeli politics one way or another. Upsetting
the status quo on religious matters before a general election is bad for
politics.
Israel: How a Trifecta of Court Cases Could Cement King Bibi's Reign
Three separate court cases have converged in Israel to provide Netanyahu the
cover he needs to maintain power amid a stream of controversies.
MintPress News | Miko Peled | Feb 24
Luckily, the Israeli Supreme Court is not an elected body and doesn't need
to worry about coalition issues, and so, its justices are free to make
rulings as they see fit. What brought the court to this particular ruling,
however, was a lack of ability on the part of the legislature and the State
institutions to rule on this very sensitive issue.
In Israel, Orthodox Judaism has a monopoly over all of a person's life-cycle
issues: birth, marriage, divorce and death. It also governs everything that
has to do with determining the validity or purity of one's Jewishness. The
chief rabbinate of the State - not to be confused with the non-Zionist
rabbinical institutions that do not recognize the State-appointed rabbinical
authorities - has a monopoly on all conversions as well. It refuses to
recognize conversions made by non-Orthodox rabbis.
A third-rail issue
This is true inside Israel. Outside of Israel, though, Orthodox Judaism is
not the majority, and has no control over the life of Jewish people. In the
United States, for example, the largest Jewish community is that of Reformed
Judaism, which only barely resembles Orthodox Judaism.
For example, members of Reformed, and even the Conservative streams of
Judaism, will drive to services on Friday evening or Saturday morning and
the family will sit together in the sanctuary during the service, much as
one might see in a church. This is in total contradiction to the tenets of
Orthodox Judaism. According to Orthodox Judaism, driving on the Sabbath is
strictly forbidden, and men and women must sit in separate parts of the
sanctuary, which must be divided so that they cannot see each other.
Israel Citizenship
A Jewish immigrant from North America kisses the ground at Ben Gurion
airport near Tel Aviv. Ariel Schalit | AP
The State of Israel is obliged to support Reform and Conservative
communities, as they comprise the majority of Jews outside of Israel and are
also deeply Zionist. If the State of Israel denied the validity of their
Jewishness or the legitimacy of their rabbinical institutions, it would be a
serious slap in the face to millions of Jewish people around the world,
particularly in the United States.
These non-Orthodox communities are the very Jewish communities that
contribute to Israel financially and make up the foot soldiers for Israel in
the halls of power in Washington. However, they do not vote in the Israeli
elections and do not possess the ability to determine who will be prime
minister in Israel. The Orthodox religious parties in Israel are relatively
small and do not represent large communities, yet they possess the ability
to do just that. It is for this reason that Israeli politicians have done
everything in their power to avoid dealing with the issue of who qualifies
as a Jew under the Law of Return.
The Law of Return
Zionists claim that all Jews are descendants of an ancient tribe that lived
in parts of historic Palestine several thousand years ago. This, Zionists
claim, gives all Jewish people the right to "return" to Palestine and reside
there as citizens of the State of Israel, a state that has occupied
Palestine and imposed an apartheid regime on the Palestinian people since
1948.
The Law of Return was passed in 1950. The Jewish Agency, whose mission is to
"ensure that every Jewish person feels an unbreakable bond to one another
and to Israel," says the following about the law:
With the inception of the State of Israel, two thousand years of wandering
were officially over. Since then, Jews have been entitled to simply show up
and request to be Israeli citizens, assuming they posed no imminent danger
to public health, state security, or the Jewish people as a whole.
Essentially, all Jews everywhere are Israeli citizens by right.
Study Reveals Stunning Truths About the Palestinian Refugee Question
A new study published by Oxford challenges some of the most profound and
longstanding questions surrounding the Palestinian refugee question.
MintPress News | Miko Peled | Oct 27, 2020
This law also stands in contrast to Israeli laws that make it impossible for
Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and their land and receive
their property, both private and public, and that deny them citizenship in
their own homeland. The Law of Return is one of the first laws passed by the
Israeli Knesset that clearly define Israel as an Apartheid State, a state
where there is one set of laws that affords privileges to Jews, even if they
do not live there, and a different set of laws that denies Palestinians
their rights to the land.
Who is a Jew?
Where the law gets into trouble is when attempting to answer the question
"Who is a Jew?" This is a question that Zionists have no idea how to answer
and so they have been trying to avoid it, but it keeps returning to haunt
them. According to Judaism itself, a Jewish person is someone who accepts
the Almighty and follows the Torah, which was given to the Jewish people at
Mount Sinai. One can be born Jewish and one can also convert to Judaism.
The religious authorities in the State of Israel view all non-Orthodox
streams of Judaism as not Jewish and do not recognize their conversions.
However, for the purposes of the Law of Return, the State recognizes any
conversions undergone outside of Israel as long as they were carried out by
recognized Jewish authorities, even non-Orthodox ones.
Non-Orthodox conversion in Israel
In 2005, several cases of converts who converted to Judaism in Israel but
with non-Orthodox institutions (the minority in Israel) were brought before
the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that the matter needed to be decided by
the legislature. Since then, cases were brought in front of the court
several times, and each time the State requested more time so that the
Knesset could resolve this issue of non-Orthodox conversion that took place
in Israel.
Israel Ethiopia
Ethiopian Jews hold photos of relatives in Israel at a solidarity event.
Ethiopian Jews were forced to convert to Orthodox Judaism before emigrating
to Israel. Mulugeta Ayene | AP
The Knesset, however, was not able to do so, and the Court made its ruling:
since the Law of Return does not discriminate between Orthodox and
non-Orthodox conversions when Jews come to settle in Israel, there should be
no such discrimination when the conversion takes place in Israel.
The Orthodox conversion process is far more difficult and takes longer than
the non-Orthodox conversion and much of the criticism directed at this
ruling has to do with the concern that African asylees who have lived in
Israel for decades may take advantage of it. There is an entire movement
within Israel that wants to see Africans who live and work in Israel (in
some cases for decades) deported and that movement fears that Africans may
utilize the less stringent non-Orthodox conversion in order to establish
themselves as Jews and therefore deserving of the benefits of the Right of
Return, namely lawful citizenship.
Zionist chauvinism raises its head
This ruling by the Supreme Court is a serious slap in the face of the State
Rabbinate, which until now had the monopoly on conversions. Right-wing
religious politicians like Naftali Bennett, who is eyeing the prime
minister's seat, and Bezalel Smotrich - who are both inherently chauvinistic
and racist and represent the religious-Zionist political parties -
immediately expressed their displeasure with the Supreme Court's
intervention in this issue.
Netanyahu's Days May Be Numbered, but a Cadre of Far-Right Fanatics Wait in
the Wings
In Israel, the political career of Benjamin Netanyahu may be coming to an
end, but even more dangerous far-right fanatics wait in the wings.
MintPress News | Miko Peled | Dec 21, 2020
The religious right in Israel has been at odds with the Supreme Court for
years, as it is considered to be too liberal for their taste. Mixing
politics and religion creates a toxic reaction, and Israel is no exception.
Zionism and its distortion of what it means to be Jewish have created a
deeply racist, chauvinistic state. The sooner the Zionist regime is removed
and Palestine is free, the better it will be for everyone involved.
Feature photo | Israeli soldiers and relatives of new Jewish immigrants from
the US and Canada