Levin's Racist Rhetoric

“We need Supreme Court Justices who understand that Jews don’t want to live next to Arabs”

07/06/2023 12:13

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From Channel 11, Israel's Broadcasting Corp, May 28th, 2023

This is how the Minister of Justice of the State of Israel justifies his demand for the government coalition’s control of the appointment of the Supreme Court judges and appointment of the Chief Justice. Put these words in the mouths of the white supremacists who called out "Jews will not replace us" or in the mouths of the residents of many neighborhoods in the United States and members of country clubs who refused to allow Jews and blacks to move into their neighborhoods or gain membership in their clubs, and you will understand just how appalling this pronouncement is.

Levin, of course, is not alone. We may recall that Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of Safed [in Northern Israel] has for years been leading a campaign to prevent the entry and residence of Arabs in the city. The fact that Eliyahu’s name has been suggested as a candidate for the office of Israel’s Chief Rabbi in the upcoming elections for the Chief Rabbinate, and that his son and disciple, Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu, is the Minister of [Jewish] Heritage in the Israeli government and serves as a representative of Itamar Ben Gvir’s racist and extremist party, Otzma Yehudit [“Jewish Power”], is sufficient to make us understand the enormous existential challenge that Israel now faces (as do the Jewish People in the Diaspora that still look to Israel for inspiration and leadership).

We can go back just a few years to Bezalel Smotrich’s detailed “The Decisive Plan” for a final resolution of the Jewish/Arab conflict, based conceptually on the Book of Joshua. He outlined a 3-stage solution: 1. Live as residents with an inferior status; or alternatively: 2. Leave the country;

"We need to make sure there are judges in the Supreme Court who understand this"

or alternatively: 3. Be dealt with by the army, and when asked whether that means killing families, women and children he responded “In war as in war”. More recently Minister Smotrich has made such pronouncements as lashing at the Arab MKs at the Knesset: “You are here by mistake, because Ben-Gurion did not finish the job and did not throw you out in 1948”.

However, there is no need to go as far as Charlottesville to understand how wrong this statement is. It stands in complete contradiction to the values of the Jewish and democratic State of Israel as promised in the Declaration of Independence: "The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; …it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or gender…”

Levin and his colleagues are trying to “sell” the judicial overhaul as if it intended to improve the Israeli legal system and ensure democracy, but these statements, and many similar to them, prove that this is a racist poison that undermines all the foundations of democracy, and expresses a desire to take control of the judiciary and appoint judges who do not equate democracy with equality. It is intended to facilitate such plans as Smotrich’s “Decisive Plan” for a final resolution of the Jewish/Arab conflict. He knows without doubt that without neutralizing the Supreme Court, such plans would be blocked by court. Without an independent and strong Supreme Court – the road would be cleared for the destruction of Israel as a truly Jewish and democratic state!