8 | APRIL 6 • 2023
PURELY COMMENTARY
continued on page 10
statement from Serling Institute
Serling Institute Supports
Israeli Democracy
T
he Serling Institute
for Jewish Studies
and Modern Israel
at Michigan State University
supports Israel’s democracy
and stands with those who
were peacefully protesting
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s
efforts to pass legislation that
will eliminate the ability of the
High Court to act as a check
on the government.
We stand with those many
groups and individuals from
Israeli civil society and state
institutions who are calling for
a stop to the judicial overhaul
proposals. We stand with the
several hundred thousand
Israelis peacefully protesting
for the past three months
against the government’s
efforts to weaken Israeli
democracy. We stand with the
leaders of Israeli universities
and colleges who officially
oppose “the continuation of
the legislative process that
undermines the foundations
of Israeli democracy and
endangers its continued
existence.”
We join with the
Association of Israel
Studies in “view[ing] with
grave concern the recent
developments in Israel,
including the looming
changes in the state’s political
and legal system and the
growing support for racism
and incitement. As an
academic association, we are
committed to intellectual
integrity and academic
freedom — necessary
foundations for any healthy
and free society — and to the
values of freedom, equality
and pluralism, which must
exclude any discrimination on
the basis of religion, ethnicity
or gender. We believe that
all efforts should be made
to ensure that the rights and
responsibilities upon which
freedom of expression and
the free exchange of ideas
are based, and the checks
and balances that are the
underpinning of democracy
— the precondition for free
academic discourse — will
continue to flourish in the
academic study of Israel,
in Israeli society and in the
Israeli body politic.
The Michael and Elaine Serling Institute
for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel
recently celebrated the 30th anniver-
sary of the Jewish Studies Program
at MSU.
opinion
A Miraculous Display
of Civil Heroism
T
he throat chokes up
with a mix of anxiety
and pride. We’ve heard
a lot about the anxiety. Here
I’
d like to emphasize the pride:
a people arose
from its peace-
ful and relaxed
day-to-day life
and went out to
fight for its spirit
and its future.
Without political
organization,
without personal interests,
without qualms, crowds rallied
to restore to the people what
belongs to them: the ability to
defend their freedom against a
potentially predatory majority
rule.
In view of the danger that
the Leviathan — the executive
branch — will take over the
judicial branch, Israeli citizens
are forging an impenetrable
defensive wall with their own
bodies. The Israeli center
understands that only it — you
and I and every Israeli patri-
ot — can get the state and our
society out of the emergency
room into which it was thrown,
battered and bloody.
How much power there is in
nonviolent civil disobedience!
Hundreds of thousands have
taken to our streets in the spirit
of Gandhi and King, their only
weapons flags, signs, mega-
phones and a general strike.
Facing them is a responsible,
mature, controlled police force
that knows that its role in the
national drama is limited and
marginal. Not government-dis-
patched thugs, but rather keep-
ers of the public order, with
good intentions. Even more
reason to be proud.
The transfer of Israeli society
from the emergency room to a
regular ward, and later to rehab,
should be measured. A halt to
the aggressive legislative effort
must not be construed as the
victory of half the people over
the other half. Nor should it
be regarded as a capitulation
to military service refusal —
even “gray refusal.
” The protest
movement must rise above a
Rothman-Levin maneuver that
seeks to aggressively vanquish
Israelis protest outside the Knesset government’s planned judicial
overhaul, in Jerusalem on March 27, 2023
Yedidia Stern
Times of
Israel
ERIK MARMOR/FLASH90