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Vol. 1 #30 Feb 23, 1999 |
| Some are More Equal
Ami Isseroff In most countries, elections are a reason for legislators to be extra careful about public opinion and public rights. Israel must be part of the anti-matter universe. Elections seem to be an excuse for the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) to pass every bad law imaginable and think up a few previously unimaginable ones. The opposition is nowhere in evidence. Those who think a national unity government is a good idea should contemplate the consequences of such unity as manifest in recent legislative antics. Religious and special interest groups have been ramming through decree after decree, no matter how absurd, blatantly antidemocratic or self-serving,. Most are riders tacked on to the budget and buried from the public eye. You may think your town needs better sewage and more roads. The Knesset knows better. They know that what you really need is a good cheap Mikveh - Jewish religious bath, and that is what you are going to get. Even if you never set foot in a Mikveh in your life. The highlight until today was the raise that a few venturesome MKs provided for themselves as vice-ministers and for their friends. It was rescinded because Bibi Netanyahu understood that that was too much even for the Israeli public to swallow. They will have to find another way to take the money. A close second was the law forcing members of government-funded ‘religious councils’ to pledge allegiance to Orthodox halachic law. Today the Knesset topped its record, passing a law legalizing all radio stations that had been operating illegally for the last five years, in the name of ‘freedom of expression.’ The law is the just reward of lawbreakers. Before, we had a bad situation, since only government broadcasting and radio stations expressing government opinions were allowed to operate on a national level. Now we have a worse situation, because only radio stations operated by the government or by people with no respect for the law are allowed to operate on a national level. In practice, the legalized radio stations include the Arutz-7 settler’s radio station, whose disrespect for the law has gone as far as incitement on more than one occasion. It also includes radio stations of the Shas party. The Shas party was recently declared to be a great friend of democracy. Shas representatives recently explained that they democratically decide to listen to whatever their Rabbinical Council tells them to do. The spiritual mentor of Shas, The Ayato - uh - Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, recently took time off from issuing pronouncements on whether it is legal to pick your nose on the Sabbath to roundly denounce the Supreme Court, noting that there is no reason to obey judges who do not follow the Halachah and eat unkosher food. Truly a democratic sentiment. On the other hand, it is worth considering who does not have a national private radio station. Israeli Arabs do not have such a station of their own. The Israeli worker’s movement does not have a national radio station. That is not so bad-because maybe there is not really an Israeli workers movement anymore. Certainly, if they have no education system and no radio station, while the religious parties have both, eventually there won’t be any workers left at all. We shall all be in Yeshivot. The Israeli peace movement does not have a national radio station. Also not so bad. The peace camp is best represented it seems, by the ‘leftists’ of the IDF army radio! These are badgered from time to time by the powers that be. To those who say ‘too bad the Voice of Peace is not here to enjoy this boon,’ let me assure you that the law would never have been passed if the Voice of Peace was still in operation. The law will be appealed in the Supreme Court on Monday. The judges, lacking a good sense of humor, will probably strike it down. This is a pity. A law like this opens the way to all kinds of precedents. For example, if an illegal dwelling is in existence for five years, can it become legal? If I have not paid income tax for five years, can I be declared exempt from income tax? Even if the court strikes down the law, I have a strong feeling that these stations will stay in business for a long time, and an equally strong feeling that if we were to start a Voice of Peace station it might not fare quite so well. A radio station is not just a means of passing the time. Radio and television decide very much what people will hear as news - and what will be discussed as important, and what opinions might be acceptable. The scope of opinions that are ‘acceptable’ is gradually narrowing and moving rightward. Voices of peace, and voices of moderation, will be heard less and less often. The constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is remembered as the most democratic in the world. It allowed freedom of religion, and freedom of antireligious propaganda. In Israel, we have no constitution, and we allow both freedom of religion for Orthodox Jews, and freedom of religious propaganda for Orthodox Jews, and freedom of right wing propaganda. So clearly, we are not like the late USSR. In Israel, everyone is equal, except for those who are more equal. Ami Isseroff Rehovot ________________________________ While you are visiting us Peace Final Settlement Declaration -
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