Mandelblit: Replacing me with outsider would undermine foundations of gov’t
A- G, Ohana, Blue and White, Likud battle over protests during corona
Attorney- General Avichai Mandelblit on Tuesday accused Public Security Minister Amir Ohana ( Likud) of trying to replace him with outside legal advisers as a legal and political war broke out over protests in the coronavirus era.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ohana and the Likud have been trying to stop or restrict the protests for months and have intensified their efforts since the national lockdown began last week.
Meanwhile, Mandelblit, Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn ( Blue and White) and Blue and White have supported the right to protest, even as the attorney- general has issued a growing number of limits for managing the protests according to public health guidelines.
However, given that many protesters are ignoring Mandelblit’s guidelines and believe Netanyahu is using the lockdown to quell dissent, as well as the Likud and haredi parties saying that anti- Netanyahu protesters get special treatment, the issue has become intractable.
“The farce needs to stop... there is a state of emergency,” Netanyahu said late Tuesday night.
On Saturday night, protesters ignored the new guidelines handed down for the lockdown period. It was unclear
whether this was a one- time move since the guidelines were announced without giving the police or protesters significant time to adapt, or if demonstrators would continue to flaunt the rules.
The latest rebuke from Mandelblit came as Ohana tried to bring Kohelet Policy Forum and legal scholar Aviad Bakshi to the cabinet on Tuesday to present his legal opinion supporting the state’s right to ban the protests given the coronavirus lockdown.
In contrast, Mandelblit’s position is that protesters must observe mask- wearing and social- distancing guidelines, including being split into self- contained smaller capsules, but that there is no maximum limit on demonstrations as long as they are outdoors and the guidelines are followed.
Mandelblit said he respected Bakshi’s scholarship but rejected bringing him to the cabinet
continue as usual.
“I am accountable to the public,” he continued, “I will do my best for God. We are a Jewish and democratic government, and for me Judaism is first and most important. If the government decides “no” to praying on Yom Kippur and yes to demonstrations, I do not know that I can stay in such a non- Jewish government.”
In a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, National Security Council head Meir Ben- Shabbat and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein on Tuesday – as the cabinet’s recommendations started to be disseminated – Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau warned that if the lockdown is not enforced on the rest of the public, it will not be enforceable on synagogues.
“If there is no enforcement on gatherings for other things, then it is impossible to close synagogues because people will not listen,” Lau said.
The Religious- Zionist rabbinical association Tzohar called on all those organizing prayer services to “act responsibly” and hold the services in open, outdoor spaces and to limit the length of the service as much as possible.
But Tzohar also called on those organizing demonstrations to suspend the protests until the end of the lockdown, “as a means of acting in solidarity with the Israeli people during this time of crisis and to stand united in the effort to defeat the virus.”
Also, on Tuesday, Beit Shemesh Mayor Aliza Bloch stressed that “synagogues are not the enemy of the nation.”
“Yom Kippur is a day that centers on the common good of the people of Israel,” said Bloch. “All of Israel visits the synagogue on Yom Kippur in all Israeli communities. Everything must be done to see how, even on this day this year, Yom Kippur will continue to center on the common good.”
She added that “Rosh Hashanah taught us that the public understood the importance and made adjustments to its customs from years past. The discussion should not be to close a synagogue but rather how to
Makor Rishon
Likewise, nobody can say Mandelblit does not understand the importance of citizens’ right to protest.
But both of them added a caveat – Mandelblit directly, Rubinstein inferred: It is not the politicians or the government who should be curbing the demonstrations, since they are the targets of the protests and have an interest in seeing them restricted.
Rather, Mandelblit said, those who should draw up the guidelines to limit demonstrations are the police and professionals in the Health Ministry. Rubinstein called on the organizers themselves to take the initiative and realize that this is not the time.
“Be careful,” he said to the organizers. “Keep in mind the principle of preserving life.”
Everyone needs to demonstrate common sense, Rubinstein said, including those demonstrating every Saturday night on Balfour Street in Jerusalem against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as those who insist on praying in large groups in closed spaces.
Now is simply not the time – even with Yom Kippur just around the corner; even with a prime minister on trial for corruption.
Both freedom to protest and freedom of worship are fundamental rights in a democracy. But on certain rare occasions, the rights of individuals need to be curbed temporarily for the public good. And this is one of those times.
As Rubinstein said, there is no doubt that thousands of people demonstrating close to one another spreads the virus, even if the Health Ministry has not provided hard and fast figures about how many people have become infected at those events.
But that is not the only reason to curb the demonstrations. They have also led to a dangerous dose of “whataboutism” that has infected the country. Tell the haredim ( ultra- Orthodox) it is necessary to close synagogues, and their reflexive response is, “What about the protests?” Tell restaurants they have to close their businesses, and they say, “What about the synagogues?” And around and around it goes.
And then there are the issues of what appears to the public as reasonable. It is difficult to call upon the entire country to make enormous sacrifices – economic, familial, religious and otherwise; then say there are major exceptions – demonstrations and large minyans for the High Holy Days.
This will lead, and has led, to restaurants setting up outdoor tables and calling their establishment a “synagogue,” or people holding parties and saying they are “demonstrating.”
The permission to hold protests creates a gaping hole in the lockdown that leads to the public making light of the lockdown itself. So, too, do complicated mathematical formulas that allow worshipers into synagogues if there are multiple entrances. Because how serious could the situation really be if the state is allowing these types of exceptions, which seem unreasonable if you seriously want to “flatten the curve?”
“We need to understand that we are in a crisis. This is war,” coronavirus czar Ronni Gamzu said Sunday. “This week there are 800 people in serious condition [ in hospitals], and this demands that we all change behavior. All gatherings can lead to infections, and it doesn’t matter what kind of gatherings.
“People from one sector see that there are demonstrations and say to themselves that it is possible to have similar gatherings everywhere else in the country. When we take 1,000 people, there is a good chance there is one person infected by corona. We need now to unite around a single goal – reducing the incidence of infection. There will be opportunities to demonstrate afterward,” Gamzu said.
Or, as Rubinstein might say, just use common sense. •