Knesset Debate on Who is Jewish Stirs Demonstrations and Opposition by Diverse Groups

More than 2000 angry youths and adults demonstrated in front of the Knesset building this afternoon as debate opened on a Government-sponsored amendment to the Law of Return that would establish religious criteria as the sole determinant of who is entitled to Jewish nationality. Many of the demonstrators were youthful members of the leftist Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz movement. They were joined by university professors, leaders of the Mapam, Haolam Hazeh and other Knesset factions opposed to the measure and even by members of the Labor Party which is reportedly trying to rush the bill through the Knesset before determined public opposition can build up.

The demonstrators were noisy but generally non-violent. A few who scaled the Knesset fence were tossed back by police. They shouted in unison “Free Country.” and sang “We Shall Overcome,” the rallying song of the American civil rights movement. Leaflets were distributed calling for the preservation of Israel’s secular character and upholding last month’s Supreme Court majority decision that an Israeli might be registered as of Jewish nationality without being Jewish by religion.

The measure being debated inside the Knesset was a direct outcome of that decision. The Israeli chief rabbinate and the Orthodox religious parties demanded that it be nullified and that their concept that Jewish nationality and religion are inseparable be written into the law of the land. The amendment bill, drafted by a cabinet committee, complies with the Orthodox demands. The Government is supporting it to avert a threatened cabinet walk-out by the National Religious Party. But some members of the Government opposed to it have asked to be released from coalition discipline in order to vote against the bill in the Knesset. No decision has been made yet on their request. The State List, headed by former Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, has asked for a secret ballot.

GOVERNMENT’S PRIMARY CONCERN IS TO PRESERVE COALITION UNITY IN TIME OF CRISIS

Minister of Justice Yaacov Shimshon Shapiro, who introduced the bill, opened debate. His remarks indicated that the government’s primary concern was to preserve coalition unity at a time of serious crisis for Israel in its struggle with the Arabs. He recalled that some years ago when the late Minister of Interior Israel Ear Yehudah sought to introduce registration similar to recent Supreme Court ruling, the government fell over the issue. He said that conditions in Israel have not changed since then. He believed that in general, one cannot distinguish between religion and nationality where Jews are concerned.

Rabbi Itzhak Meir Levin, of the Orthodox Agudat Israel, declared that his faction supported the measure insofar as it defined a Jew according to religious tenets but was opposed to the liberal elements it contains. The Orthodox are objecting strenuously to a portion of the amendment that would accord equal rights to the non-Jewish spouses and families of immigrants. Menachem Beigin, a Minister-Without-Portfolio who heads the nationalistic right-wing Herut faction, supported the Orthodox view and tried to prove by legal and historical precedent that Jewish nationhood and religion are one.

The measure before the Knesset is concerned mainly with the technicality of registration but it has far-reaching implications. Those opposed regard it as appeasement of the Orthodox establishment and an erosion of civil rights in Israel that could have a deleterious affect on immigration. One demonstrator outside the Knesset today was a Jewish immigrant from Holland who was wounded and invalided while serving with the Israel Army. He is not a Jew by Orthodox definition because his mother is Dutch and was not converted according to Orthodox rites. He sat on a hill facing the Knesset carrying a huge Netherlands flag.

Meanwhile, the Karaites, an ancient Jewish sect that is not recognized as Jewish by the Orthodox rabbinate, demanded that the Government add a rider to its amendment that would allow them special registration. The Karaite community, numbering about 10,000, does not accept the halachic (Jewish religious law) rulings of the Israeli rabbinate. Their formal rift with rabbinical Judaism occurred in the eighth century. They have their own spiritual leaders and trace their descent through their fathers while formal Orthodox Judaism regards the religion of the mother as the determinant of who is Jewish.