T’ruah is deeply troubled by Monday’s decision by the Israeli government to prevent members of an interfaith delegation to Israel and the Palestinian territories, including Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Deputy Director Rabbi Alissa Wise, from boarding a Lufthansa flight to Israel. This is the first known instance of Jews—including a rabbi—being prevented from entering Israel since the passage of the Knesset anti-Boycott legislation in the spring. While unlike JVP, T’ruah does not advocate BDS or affiliate with the global BDS movement, we believe that engagement in non-violent protest should not be reason to be banned from Israel. Previously this year, a senior staff member of the New Israel Fund, an organization dedicated to building Israel’s civil society, was interrogated before ultimately being permitted to enter the country. These episodes represent a dangerous and growing trend in Israel of shutting out dissent rather than as welcoming it as necessary to being a healthy democracy. Shutting out Jews and activists of all faiths from Israel, even those who hold deeply critical views of the government and its policies, only damages the country for the long run.
Gagging dissent flies in the face of millennia of Jewish practice and some of our most core values. In the Talmud, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Yose were each asked what they thought of the Romans’ bathhouses, markets and bridges. Rabbi Yehuda praised the Romans, Rabbi Yose was silent, and Rabbi Shimon criticized the Romans for putting their self-interest above God’s. When the Roman emperor heard, he rewarded Rabbi Yehuda with a government position, banished Rabbi Yose, and sentenced Rabbi Shimon to death (though he fled to a cave and hid). Instead of being like the Romans, the Talmudic example of an oppressive empire, the Israeli government should heed this lesson of the Talmud and welcome the contributions of its critics. The ancient rabbis knew that transparency is the hallmark of human rights. Israel only damages its moral standing by refusing entry to those who dissent.
