Israeli democracy under attack!
The battle against illegal religious campaign tactics in Israel's municipal elections
Hiddush has filed complaints against several ultra-Orthodox parties and institutions for illegally using religious methods as a means to secure votes in the 2013 municipal elections.
17/10/2013 18:12
Tags: Shas · elections · United Torah Judaism · illegal campaign · Jerusalem · Moshe Lion
Shas trio Arieh Deri, Eli Yishai, and Ariel Atias declaring that they will jointly run the party. October 18th, 2012. Photo: Jonathan Syndal, Flash 90
In the last few days, Hiddush submitted a number of complaints to the relevant state authorities (Israel's Attorney General, Police, Ministry of Religious Services, Ministry of Education, and the Elections Supervisor) to stop these illegal practices at their root and ensure fair and democratic elections. We are demanding that the relevant authorities take proper action and punish those guilty for these offenses, which have been widely covered in the Israeli media.
While Israelis gear up for municipal elections across the country on October 22nd, Hiddush is once again confronting the backlash of the unholy alliance between religion and state; a combination which both erodes the democratic process of elections and demeans Israeli Judaism. In the last few days, Hiddush submitted a number of complaints to the relevant state authorities (Israel's Attorney General, Police, Ministry of Religious Services, Ministry of Education, and the Elections Supervisor) to stop these illegal practices at their root and ensure fair and democratic elections.
This story is not new
In 1988, Chabad-Lubavitch introduced an extremely effective religious mode to manipulate the democratic process. They went door to door and promised that a signed commitment to vote for Agudat Yisrael (an Ashkenazic ultra-Orthodox party) would come with a blessing from the Lubavitcher Rebbe for long life, prosperity, and male children. All political analysts agree that Agudah gained two to three mandates thanks to this metaphysical method. This form of undue influence on the democratic process resulted in an amendment to the election law, making the campaign strategy of "swearing, cursing, excommunicating, banning, vowing, or promises for blessings punishable by fine and up to 5 years in prison."
The effectiveness of this avenue to induce votes, especially on particularly susceptible segments of Israel's traditional and Orthodox population resulted in repeated uses of mystical charms, promises, and curses. Unfortunately, to date, authorities have issued injunctions when such instances were challenged, yet the lack of severe penalties resulted in continued breach of the law. As described below, instances of illegal campaigning strategies, unauthorized political activity of state-funded rabbinic functionaries and religious/political control over educational institutions have been employed more and more frequently in the recent past. Hiddush, by submitting complaints to the relevant authorities, has emphasized its concern that the law enforcement authorities' lax attitude is responsible for the continued disregard for the law no less than the offenders themselves. Without exercising the full extent of the penal code, the ultra-Orthodox parties will perpetually abuse the democratic process.
When it comes to campaign promises by religious parties, history repeats itself. One instance was in January before the Knesset elections. Hiddush stopped the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox Shas party from using a smartphone app that promised a blessing by the party's late revered spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef. We similarly forced the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism to remove promises for rabbinic blessings from their campaign advertisements. During this round of municipal elections, the same tricks are at play. Hiddush is currently demanding that the relevant authorities take proper action and punish those guilty for the following offenses, which have been widely covered in the Israeli media:
The effectiveness of this avenue to induce votes, especially on particularly susceptible segments of Israel's traditional and Orthodox population resulted in repeated uses of mystical charms, promises, and curses
1) Illegal use of blessings and threats: Israel's election law explicitly forbids the use of "charms and promises of blessings or curses" as a means to influence voters. This week, this very phenomenon resurfaced when the Sefardic ultra-Orthodox Shas party made a deal with the Likud-Beiteinu mayoral candidate for Jerusalem Moshe Lion. They sought to add more weight to their message to voters by advertising a "holy appeal" signed by the party's governing Council of Torah Sages. Shas promised that those who heed their call and vote for Lion will receive "a blessing from God for long days and will increase health, joy, and goodness in their years." Also, an Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox rabbinic court threatened that anyone who did not abide by their previous ruling on the obligation to vote for a particular candidate would be labeled recalcitrant and subject to excommunication.
2) Exploiting public power: A number of state-funded rabbis who are also civil servants across the country are actively campaigning for specific parties and candidates in the municipal elections. It is explicitly illegal and a blatant misuse of power for state-paid employees (including rabbis!) to get involved in elections by promoting a party or position. Additionally, a complaint was filed based on Hiddush's discovery that not only does one of Shas's Council of Torah Sages members also serve as a public-funded municipal neighborhood rabbi, but it was just announced that one of the late Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef's sons has been appointed to the same council. His appointment disregards the fact that he, too, serves as a neighborhood rabbi and is consequently a civil servant. It should have been clear to the authorities long ago that these politicians' public office and state funding is incompatible with the overtly political role they play as members of this decision-making rabbinic council of the Shas party.
3) Mixing politics and public education: Following a complaint that Hiddush received from parents in a Shas girls school (part of a 700-strong network of state-funded schools run by the party) regarding a note sent to parents signed by the school's administration impressing the need to abide by the late Rabbi Yosef's instruction to vote for Shas: "We therefore ask for all parents to abide by the instructions of "Maran" [Rabbi Yosef] and we as a school operating under the [Shas-led] 'Spring of Torah Education' network are obligated to…vote together for Shas."
Hiddush has challenged all three issues and demanded that criminal and disciplinary action be taken against those who illegally campaign or misuse their public position in order to gain political power. The controversy of Shas' campaigning in public schools is an unavoidable consequence of providing state funding to maintain and expand educational institutions governed by fundamentalist religious parties (or any party in theory, but in practice other parties are not given this privilege).
As a result, Hiddush has stressed the need to revisit the Knesset's willingness to sanction funding for ultra-Orthodox party-controlled educational networks. We hope that our initiatives will encourage enforcement of Israeli civil law and minimize the damages already done in these upcoming elections.
More importantly, we hope to exact a heavy penalty on these offenders to curb the frequent recurrences of such breaches of law whenever national and local elections are conducted. This troublesome behavior unfortunately breeds cynicism towards both politics and the Jewish faith among wide circles in the public. Hiddush's continued efforts will hopefully create a standard of integrity and respect for the rule of law in public offices and their electoral processes.