Gershom Gorenberg Discusses Growing Religious Polarization in Israel

This week, several thousand Israelis protested against a move by ultra-Orthodox Jews to segregate the sexes.

That religious polarization in Israel recently has also worked its way into politics and government – between left and right.

New and proposed laws have been passed through the Knesset that author Gershom Gorenberg describe as ‘undemocratic’. Host Lisa Mullins talks to him from Jerusalem.

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Lisa Mullins: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. Israel the Jewish state is becoming religiously polarized. Several branches of Judaism vie for influence and power in Israel. Just this week several thousand Israelis demonstrated against an Ultra-Orthodox move to segregate the sexes. This split among Israelis plays out in politics and government. The Knesset is currently debating controversial legislation supported by the right wing Likud Party. Critics such as author Gershom Gorenberg say such laws could undermine Israeli democracy. Gershom Gorenberg is now in Jerusalem. We want to point out that you describe yourself, Gershom, as a progressive or someone who is left of center. In that context, what are the laws that are being proposed right now that concern you most?

Gershom Gorenberg: Well, first of all I would point out laws that have already passed during the current term of the Knesset. A law that passed this year imposed civil penalties on anyone calling for a boycott of good produced in West Bank settlements.

Mullins: This is isn’t as much those who boycott, but those who call for a boycott?

Gorenberg: Simply those who call for a boycott, it’s a restriction of the right of free speech, the right to organize and economic freedoms.

Mullins: There’s also legislation to stop mosques from using loudspeakers for the call to prayer.

Gorenberg: Correct.

Mullins: You say this is more than an issue of noise pollution as some would see it.

Gorenberg: Yes, there is a bill that’s been proposed by a right wing Knesset member that specifically banned one kind of public noise, using loudspeakers for a call to prayer. It wouldnot affect the ringing of church bells. It would not affect the blowing of a shofar in synagogue early in the morning, or the use of sirens to announce the beginning of the Jewish sabbath. So it’s really a law to ban Muslim citizens from using loudspeakers in their mosques for the daily call to prayer.

Mullins: Although that’s not the way it’s being described by supporters.

Gorenberg: Of course not, but the wording of the law is such that that’s the only thing that it applies to.

Mullins: Is it not simply that the right has the power and can set the agenda?

Gorenberg: Well, the right certainly has a majority in the Knesset. The difference between what’s going on now and what has gone on in the past when a right wing government has been in power is that the kind of laws which are being proposed are ones which use the power of the majority to restrict the rights of the minority.

Mullins: Right now, Israel is operating under Prime Minister Netanyahu. Israel though in your view has been steadily dismantling itself. I mean this is not something that has just happened in your view anyway under his tenure.

Gorenberg: Following the military victory of 1967 and the conquest at that time of the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and originally of the Sinai Peninsula, the failure of the government to make decisions about the future of those territories and then policies that began to encourage Israelis settling in the occupied territories have had a very negative effect on the state and on its democracy.

Mullins: Journalist and author, Gershom Gorenberg’s new book is called The Unmaking of Israel. He joined us from Jerusalem. Thank you.

Gorenberg: Thank you.

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