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State Control Committee Debates  Free Speech vs. Incitement

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The State Control Committee convened last week to discuss the democratic boundaries between freedom of speech and incitement, on the heels of a string of incendiary statements made by Rabbi Yigal Levenstein, founder and dean of the Bnei David pre-army academy in Eli.

Committee Chairman and Yesh Atid MK Karin Elharar opened the session asking “What does the state do against those who attempt to destroy the public order in Israel?”

Committee members acknowledged the friction between freedom of speech aimed at preventing a police state and criminal incitement. In addition to Levenstein’s description last summer of homosexuals as “deviants” and more recent denunciation of women who serve in IDF combat units, the debate also focused on cases including Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, who has called for discrimination against Arabs and women.

Alona Inbar, representing the state prosecutor’s office, explained that statements can only lead to prosecution if they fit within crimes in Israeli legislation such as incitement to commit violence or incitement to racism.

“With regards to incitement to violence, the state needs to establish a ‘reasonability’ test,” Inbar said, “meaning to ascertain that there is a real possibility that the statements will lead to acts of violence causing harm to an individual or serious injury. For example, police opened an investigation after IDF soldiers were hung in effigy in several haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh.

“However, when the inciting words are offensive, it becomes more complicated, and the law does not always provide the tools to prosecute,” Inbar added.

Lieutenant (Ret.) Omer Nahmany, founder of the nascent Blue & White Pride movement aimed at “promoting a more integrated IDF,” severely criticized the government for continuing to fund rabbis such as Levenstein and the legal system for failing to act.

“We, as citizens, pay for this rabbi [Levenstein] who incites against the army and threatens the cohesion of the IDF. We all know what the Torah says about homosexuality. By calling us ‘deviants,’ he effectively endangers our lives when we already risk them for the country”.

“How much proof do you need to establish ‘reasonability’?”, Nahmany responded to Inbar. “Another Yshai Shlissel? Another 16-year-old Shira Banki killed?”

Rabbi Uri Regev, a lawyer, one of Israel’s leading Reform clergy and founder of the Hiddush organization to fight religious coercion, told Tazpit Press Service (TPS) that Israel has yet to come to terms with the threat constituted by theological challenges to the state’s democratic foundations.

“It’s one thing for individuals who hold different opinions to debate them, it is quite another when these views are preached by civil servants [who receive state salaries]. In my opinion, Israel has the right to say that if someone wishes to be part of the civil service, there are accompanying limitations.

“Israel has been far too lenient, and closed its eyes for far too long to cases like the one of Rabbi Eliyahu, rabbis who claim the right to speak against the judiciary, Knesset legislation or the army by arguing merely on interpretations or applications of halachic (Jewish) law.

“The Attorney General has refrained for decades from applying criminal law or disciplinary measures against theological challenges to democracy, in part due to a strong political element,” Regev concluded.

By: Ilana Messika
(TPS)

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