Last Independence Day, the Declaration of Independence landed on our doorstep.
In years past, we used to receive Israeli flags in the holiday newspapers, this year the Declaration of Independence arrived. Soon she took a place of honor on our door when my eldest proudly announced that he was going to memorize her.
The recent protest against the reform and against the government brought the Israeli flag back into fashion, flooding our streets with blue and white, and then the Declaration of Independence was also brought back into fashion. This should be welcomed wholeheartedly, without a shred of cynicism.
But what is the object of the latest protest? Is the protest against the legal reform, against the draft law, the Arnona law, against gender segregation on buses in Bnei Brak, Orthodox prayer in public spaces in cities, against settlers or religious people, or again against Bibi? What is clear is that the new flag they are using to attack the other side is the Declaration of Independence. They embrace the Charter, hang it, cling to it and want tomorrow morning to enact it as a constitution, and anyone who dares to reflect or question is attacked as an enemy of the Charter and the nation.
Although the Declaration of Independence does not mention the word "democracy," it is clear to every girl and boy that the Declaration positions the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.
The same fine, sensitive balance that somehow manages to exist here for decades, in countless polemics and, in practice, in everyday life. In the State of Israel, the villa in the jungle, Judaism thrives and democracy thrives. And here something was violated.
The protest leaders don't want the Jew. They want democracy, and that too in the format of "democracy at your request." But let's focus on the Jewish side of the equation and look not only at the last Yom Kippur, but at the growing phenomenon of signs at anti-religious demonstrations erasing the word "Jewish," look at the texts they write, look at the contempt and ridicule of extremists who are often at the heart of leading the protests.
"Jewish and democratic?" wrote Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Ben, "It's time to erase the word Jewish." It is worthwhile to dwell on this text a little longer, because it eloquently expresses sentiments among the protest leaders. "The Declaration of Independence contains a landmine: the definition of Israel as a Jewish state... Had Ben-Gurion satisfied himself with declaring a state in the Land of Israel to be called Israel, he would have laid an important foundation for the development of a civic identity that could fulfill the promises of equality and freedom in the Declaration of Independence."
"Jewish and democratic?" wrote Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Ben, "It's time to erase the word Jewish." It is worthwhile to dwell on this text a little longer, because it eloquently expresses sentiments among the protest leaders
It is enough to look at the tragedy of last Yom Kippur to feel the contempt for Judaism, religion, every religious symbol and every person who wears a kippah or head covering. After all, if it were just a Dizengoff Square quarrel, it could still be argued that what bothers the protesters is the chain of flags that became a kind of partition. But Dizengoff Square was not alone in the battle. The explosion of Holy Day prayers was also the province of Ramat Aviv, Kikar HaMedina, Habima Square, Haifa, Givatayim, Jaffa, Zichron Yaakov and more. It wasn't against a partition – it was against prayer, against Judaism and against the religious. Last year, not only was there a symbolic partition in Dizengoff, but the Tel Aviv municipality took pride in the Yom Kippur prayer in the square, declaring on its Facebook page that "this is not the queue for the bakery." What will happen to Simchat Torah? Second laps? What will happen to the Sukkots that will be placed in the public space?
These are not all protesters, far from it. Many belong to the protest against the reform and are deterred by this blatant and semi-anti-Semitic conduct. But it is important to read between the lines those who use the Declaration of Independence as a foundation to dig into and punch. Those who take what is to their liking and nonchalantly omit what is not. Those who claim that Judaism is a burden, anachronistic, excluding women and racist, rather than a tradition, are founding generations and the people of Israel. Those who see it as a landmine on the way to creating an extremist democracy, in which we lose the Jewish and are left with democratic doubt, are extremely lame.
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