Chanukah Traffic in Yerushalayim
As usual, I have much to report to you this week. If I wanted to give you a full rundown of the events of Chanukah in Eretz Yisroel, I would need a full newspaper to do so. There were menorah lightings with the rebbes of various chassidishe communities, there were many Torah events, and tens of thousands of menoros illuminated homes everywhere. Personally, I find it deeply moving every year to see the buses carrying illuminated signs wishing everyone a happy Chanukah. There is also a menorah lighting every evening at the Kosel; whoever organizes this event, which is naturally under the oversight of Rav Shmuel Rabinowitz, is responsible for a major kiddush Hashem. Every night, the privilege of lighting the menorah is given to various guests who perform the lighting in groups, such as survivors of Hamas captivity together with ambassadors from other countries, or the United States ambassador together with Binyomin Netanyahu, or Rav Yitzchok Dovid Grossman and the chief of the police force.
Chanukah always provides us with a unique opportunity to see where the true allegiances of ordinary Israelis lie. The State of Israel may be locked in an adversarial relationship with the religious community, but most of the people are far more sympathetic and even harbor at least some level of religious commitment themselves. My own experience this week seems to bear this out. On Sunday afternoon, I left my office at the Knesset to drive home for candlelighting, and I found the streets unusually clogged with traffic. On an ordinary day, when I leave work much later, the drive takes me between 10 and 20 minutes. In this case, as I drove past the old cemetery (where the Zhviller Rebbe is buried), I found the road so heavily congested that I had no choice but to turn around and take an alternate route. This route, however, was equally slow, and I opted for a third route, which took me past the Israel Museum and turned out to be even worse. Wondering whether the traffic was this heavy every afternoon, I lowered my window and asked a nearby taxi driver, “Did something happen? Why is there so much traffic on the roads?”
The taxi driver looked at me curiously. “Nothing happened,” he replied. “Everyone is in a rush to get home to light candles!” That priority was apparently shared by just about everyone on the road, secular and religious alike.
Even the Knesset, the official parliament of the State of Israel, is in a different mode on Chanukah. In general, the parliamentary week is rigidly scheduled. The Knesset convenes at 4:00 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays and at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesdays. On Sundays and Thursdays, the Knesset does not convene, and there are very few committee sessions as well. This week, on account of Chanukah, the Knesset sitting on Tuesday was canceled altogether, and the Knesset convened at 9:00 a.m. on Monday and Wednesday. We were also informed last week that the sittings on Monday and Wednesday would end at 3:00 p.m., regardless of whether the Knesset had completed its work for the day. Of course, the menorah was lit in the Knesset shul every day, and there was a mass menorah lighting ceremony in the Chagall auditorium. Large menoros were also lit in the plaza before the building and at the entrance to the Knesset building. There was something delightful about seeing the parliament of the secular State of Israel making an effort to contribute to the festive atmosphere of Chanukah.
Incidentally, there is a particular Knesset employee who plays a large role in these efforts. His name is Chaim Rabinowitz, and he is a Boyaner chossid who is very close to the Boyaner Rebbe. Chaim is highly active in the Boyan community’s annual Lag Ba’omer bonfire in Meron, where he oversees the Rebbe’s lighting. His job in the Knesset is to serve as an advisor to the Knesset director-general, Moshe “Chico” Cohen, and it is rumored that he is at least partly responsible for the fact that the Knesset has begun taking an interest in the trappings of a religious holiday. Of course, he deserves to be applauded for his work.
This Chanukah also brought us a news story of a less pleasant variety: An Arab woman who appears to be employed in Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv was captured by a security camera emerging from the hospital to the adjacent mall, where she passed by a large lit menorah and deliberately blew out the flames. The woman has been arrested by the police, and some of the modern-day Misyavnim decried the arrest and insisted that she had done nothing wrong. As far as they are concerned, there is nothing to celebrate on Chanukah.
An Uplifting Shabbos in Kiryat Sefer
The yom tov of Chanukah may not be mentioned in the Torah, but it is perhaps more closely associated with Torah learning and avodas Hashem than almost any other holiday (except Shavuos, the day of Mattan Torah). Without the miraculous events of Chanukah, we would have been lost to the wicked designs of the Yevonim, whose evil decrees were focused on destroying the Torah. There are many halachos pertaining to the simple act of lighting the Chanukah candles; even an ostensibly straightforward act can generate volumes of halachic discussion. This year, I came across an interesting question: When there are multiple people lighting candles in the same home, why do they all light in the same window? Why not divide the menoros among multiple windows so that they can be seen from different directions, which would seemingly achieve even greater publicity for the miracle?
Last week, I had the distinct privilege of hearing a drosha delivered in Kiryat Sefer by Rav Meir Gafni, a talented orator and the highly admired rov of the Heichal Yitzchok community. (Heichal Yitzchok, a shul founded by Rav Moshe Schlesinger, has become a thriving hub of Torah and tefillah in the city.) Rav Gafni remarked that if a person has enough oil to light multiple candles, but he knows that someone else has no oil at all, he must give up some of his own oil for the other person to fulfill the mitzvah, even if it means that he will light only a single candle. Noticing his audience’s astonished reactions, Rav Gafni said, “This is stated explicitly in the Mishnah Berurah; it is better for a person to light only one candle each night and to give his excess oil to a needy person.” But his discussion focused on the fundamental logic behind the Mishnah Berurah’s ruling. “What is the basis of the Chofetz Chaim’s ruling?” he asked as his listeners sat spellbound. “Is this a halacha of arvus, the responsibility to ensure that our fellow Jews fulfill their mitzvos, or is it a form of chesed? Or, perhaps, are there other possible reasons for it?” Unfortunately, this column is not the place for a full synopsis of his scholarly discourse.
The next speaker was Rav Yaakov Gutterman, who is not only the mayor of Kiryat Sefer (otherwise known as Modiin Illit) but a gifted orator as well. “The posuk says that Yosef’s brothers ‘saw him from afar,’” he said. “This alludes to the fundamental flaw in their relationship. The Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh comments that these words allude to ‘distance of the hearts.’”
After the speech, I remarked to him, “Your comment about Yosef and his brothers reminds me of the posuk that describes the makkah of choshech in Mitzrayim, where the Torah states that there was darkness throughout the land and no one could see anyone else. The greatest darkness is when people do not see each other.”
“Yes,” Rav Gutterman confirmed. “That is the Sfas Emes’s comment on the posuk.”
On Friday night, I davened at a large, magnificent shul in Brachfeld in proximity to the Mir yeshiva’s massive building. After Kabbolas Shabbos, the rov of the shul delivered an intricate chaburah consisting of a series of questions and answers, and quoting the Brisker Rav. His voice struck me as familiar, and it didn’t take me long to place it: The rov was Rav Refoel Kunstler, a onetime prominent marbitz Torah in Yerushalayim and son-in-law of Rav Shraga Grossbard, and a beloved talmid of Rav Moshe Shmuel Shapiro. From my own time in Be’er Yaakov, I remembered him as one of the most outstanding talmidim in the yeshiva. Today, many years later, he is a marbitz Torah in Kiryat Sefer. I returned to Yerushalayim after Shabbos in an elevated mood, having truly enjoyed the spiritual delights that this Shabbos afforded me.
Police Brutality Reaches New Heights
Before we turn our attention to other matters, let me make one final comment about Chanukah. Rav Chaim Shmulevitz once offered his own explanation for the exalted status of Zos Chanukah, the final day of Chanukah: On every other day of the holiday, the afternoon seder in yeshivos and kollelim is cut short so that the talmidim can light the candles on time. On Zos Chanukah, however, the seder returns to its usual length, since there is no need to light the menorah at night. That makes it a truly exalted occasion.
But we will now move on to other news. First of all, I must report on the events in Yerushalayim last Thursday, which were utterly mind-boggling. When a municipal inspector ticketed a car that may have been parked illegally, the protest that erupted at the scene quickly spiraled out of control, turning into a major clash between local residents and the police that drew fierce condemnations from both sides. The police sharply criticized the “chareidi violence,” while the chareidi community decried the police brutality.
To put matters in perspective, let me first make it clear that violence is intolerable. No one has the right to strike another person. The chareidi community is opposed to violence; that should be absolutely clear. However — and this is very important to keep in mind — the chareidim are being persecuted. Today, the community has its proverbial back against the wall. And when someone is in such a desperate situation, there is often very little that he can do other than defend himself in any way possible. Moreover, neither a civilian nor a police officer has the right to resort to violence, but when a policeman is guilty of it, it is much worse. A police officer’s duty is not only to enforce the law but to ensure that it is observed by everyone. Therefore, when a police officer engages in violence, especially without any reason at all, it is a much more egregious crime than violence committed by a civilian. That is part of the reason that the police deserve much more condemnation for last Thursday’s pandemonium than anyone else involved, but that is not all.
To anyone who watched the chaos unfolding on the streets of Yerushalayim, it was clear that the police brutality had nothing to do with restoring order. This was far more than a law enforcement operation; the police had decided to take revenge for something perceived as a personal insult. The crowd had fought back against them and even overturned a police car, and that was when the police went wild. They descended on the public in an outpouring of wrath —not as officers charged with enforcing the law, but as lawbreakers and thugs who could not tolerate an insult to their egos and responded with vicious brutality. Some of those officers in uniform were a disgrace to the Israeli police force, and they would have been a disgrace to any police force in the world. For instance, when a chareidi youth fled from the riots and ran up a flight of stairs, a police officer chased him and beat him repeatedly with his truncheon, for no logical reason whatsoever. It was simply that the police officer was angry, and he decided to vent his rage on a defenseless youth. Rumor has it that the Department of Internal Police Investigations is examining this particular incident, but I personally have no faith in their investigations. Years of experience, including their lackluster response to the egregious police brutality in Meron, have taught me to expect little or nothing from them. In any event, this is not an isolated incident; it is just one example among many of the police’s reprehensible behavior last week. The only reason this particular incident triggered any sort of investigation at all is that it was caught on camera and publicized, causing waves of shock and revulsion. There was also a young boy who was beaten by a police officer and remained standing in his spot, crying bitterly and shaking with fear. What was the purpose of beating a child? The policeman who assaulted him is nothing but a lowly thug!
An Arrest in Ramat Gan
Of course, the police denounced the entire chareidi community, labeling our community a pack of violent rioters. Police Chief Dani Levi announced, “The police will bring everyone involved to justice…. I take a very severe view of attacks on police officers and inspectors by miscreants who do not hesitate to use any means with the goal of harming the police and causing major property damage. I wish a speedy recovery to all the injured.” Levi added, “Following this violent riot, the police have been using various means to quell disruptions of the public order and to carry out arrests. At this point, the police have arrested four suspects.” Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir joined the police chief in condemning the “violent extremists” and “civilians who broke the law.”
From the religious community’s perspective, this escalated from a mundane conflict with a city inspector (and again, no one justifies violence against such a person) to part of a much broader battle against the arrests of bnei yeshivos. On that note, the riots allowed two of the youths identified as draft dodgers to escape. The third, who was already in the police car, was taken away by the police. But to give you an idea of how hastily the police tend to make arrests, I will point out that the man who received the ticket from the inspector was detained by the police, who accused him of fomenting the riots, but was quickly ordered released by a judge on the Magistrates’ Court in Yerushalayim (although he was placed under house arrest rather than being freed altogether). Three other detainees were freed after arriving at the police station, presumably because the police realized that the judge would simply release them as well.
This incident cannot be divorced from its context — the mounting efforts of the police and military police to hunt and arrest Torah learners for dodging the draft. This week, chareidi protestors managed to prevent two arrests of bnei yeshiva, one in Herzliya and the other in Ramat Hasharon. On Tuesday night, a bochur named Yitzchok Revivo, who learns in Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Ozer in Bnei Brak, was arrested while returning to light the menorah in his home on the border of Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan. Revivo was previously targeted for arrest about three weeks ago, but the arrival of the military police triggered a massive protest, as hundreds of demonstrators were summoned to his home and swarmed the police car, preventing the police from detaining him and even overturning the vehicle. And the police apparently decided to retaliate for that insult as well: They returned to arrest Revivo, and a protestor who had danced on the roof of the police car during their previous attempt was arrested as well and charged with causing property damage.
Rav Dov Landau Comes to Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Ozer
There isn’t much to say about the arrests, but I must mention them, at least for the purpose of pointing out the injustice. The judges of the Supreme Court were the architects of this miserable situation, which they created by disqualifying the draft law, turning the country’s bnei yeshivos into criminals for their refusal to enlist in the army, and then ruling that the army and the government must step up enforcement and increase the arrests of draft dodgers. However, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara also deserves a large portion of the blame for adding copious amounts of fuel to the fire while blocking every effort made by the government to find a solution to the impasse.
Even the solution on the table isn’t much of a solution at all. There is a draft law currently under discussion in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, but that law is hardly the chareidi community’s “cup of tea,” as the saying goes. With its current provisions, this bill is at the outer limits of acceptability, if it can even be deemed acceptable at all. It is still unclear whether the gedolim will even permit the chareidi parties to support it. The situation is very bad, and you may remember that Meir Porush discussed this in a meeting in the Knesset with a delegation from Shuvu, as I reported to you many months ago. Porush told them at the time that we have reached the most difficult and dangerous situation since the founding of the state. I have already asked MK Uri Maklev to clarify the situation for my readers, and I hope to have a chance to interview him this week.
Permit me another few words on this subject: Rav Dov Landau, who is personally shouldering the weight of responsibility for managing this crisis along with his colleague, Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, visited Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Ozer in response to the arrest of Yitzchok Revivo, a talmid in the yeshiva. Rav Landau attended a mesibah in honor of Chanukah in the yeshiva, which was attended by Revivo’s father as well. Rav Landau blessed the father warmly and told him that the entire community is davening fervently for his son to be released soon. I should point out, however, that even after the bochur is freed, he will not be out of the woods. Even after a bochur has served a couple of weeks behind bars, it doesn’t expunge his status as a draft dodger, and he is theoretically subject to arrest again. This makes for a highly challenging and complicated situation for all concerned.
“Every person of faith in Klal Yisroel is shaken to the core by the horrific sin of throwing a talmid of this yeshiva — Yeshivas Rabbeinu Chaim Ozer, headed by our colleague Rav Menachem Tzvi Berlin — into jail,” Rav Landau declared during his visit to the yeshiva. “He has been imprisoned only because he learns in a yeshiva and did not enlist in the army of the state. This is deeply disturbing, and we must make it clear that no weapon that is raised against the Torah will succeed. Their decrees will be annulled like dust of the earth, and everyone will be able to continue learning without disturbance.” Addressing the bochurim, Rav Dov added, “Do not be discouraged. Be courageous and strong, and cling to the traits of the Chashmonaim, who stood up valiantly to those who sought to cause the Torah to be forgotten. The Chashmonaim succeeded, and may Hashem perform wonders and miracles for us as well.”
The Background to the Riots: Mounting Arrests of Draft Evaders
Perhaps a little background information is in order. On Thursday afternoon, a municipal inspector gave a ticket to a chareidi youth near the intersection of Bar Ilan and Ohalei Yosef Streets. The young man’s friends tried to defend him, and the inspector grew frightened and called the police. (Municipal inspectors tend to become unsettled even when someone shouts at them.) The police officers asked the young men for their IDs, and when they discovered that some of them were categorized as draft evaders, they decided to detain them and call the military police. This quickly turned into a battle against the arrests, which the entire chareidi community is united in opposing. People rushed to the scene in droves, and the situation quickly degenerated into bedlam. A police car was overturned, and objects were thrown at the police, as rioting and violence shook the street. Of course, the police did not take this lying down. Hundreds of police officers converged on the scene, dealing vicious blows with their truncheons and using water cannons and even gas grenades that directly targeted people in the vicinity. Even young girls and children suffered from their wrath. The sights were horrific, and the police claim that 13 police officers were injured, while there is no official tally of the injuries among the chareidim. Of course, several chareidim were taken into police custody as well.
Many of the incidents that afternoon sent waves of shock and horror through the community. One was the experience of Rav Avrohom Idan, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Ateres Halevi in Yerushalayim. Rav Idan was arrested in a shockingly brutal fashion. According to family members, Rav Idan was innocently driving down Rechov Eli Hakohen, unaware of the violence taking place nearby. His wife had been released from the hospital with a newborn baby just one day before, and he was running errands when he realized that he had inadvertently driven into a protest. Suddenly, someone began throwing stones at the police officers nearby, striking his car as well. Rav Idan then observed someone approaching his window; this was a police officer who instructed him to open the window, but he refused. Another policeman then smashed the window, and Rav Idan was arrested while his 12-year-old son, who was seated beside him in the car, looked on in horror. Hours before his newborn son’s bris, Rav Idan was still being held in police custody. The police employed their usual tactics for such situations, claiming that Rav Idan had attacked an officer. What they did not know, however, was that the entire incident was recorded, since the rosh yeshiva had been in the middle of a phone call with his wife.
Right-Wing Bloc Excelling in the Polls
As I mentioned last week, the year 2026 is going to be an election year, and there are several new players on the political field. Some of those players are actually politicians who have returned after a period of inactivity, such as Naftoli Bennett, who served as prime minister for a short time, whether by mistake or through deception. After stepping out of politics for a while, Bennett has decided to court Israeli voters once again, aiming for a return to the Knesset. Amazingly, the polls are showing him receiving an astronomical number of mandates, perhaps even twenty seats. No one understands who actually plans to vote for him, but the outcome of the polls is undeniable. This week, however, Bennett’s public image was severely tarnished when his personal accounts were compromised, purportedly by Iranian hackers.
Another relative newcomer in the upcoming election is Gadi Eizenkot, who previously partnered with Benny Gantz and has now decided to run independently as chairman of the new Yashar party. The polls indicate that Eizenkot will receive five mandates, which is a decent showing. However, it is quite possible that his surge in popularity will prove to be temporary.
New polls are constantly being churned out here in Israel, and one thing never changes: Netanyahu and the Likud party constantly come out ahead. However, the exact breakdown of mandates between the various parties isn’t necessarily the most important aspect of a poll; what is even more interesting is the division of votes between the right-wing and left-wing blocs. As of now, the Likud and its coalition partners — UTJ, Shas, Otzma Yehudit, and Religious Zionism — are shown receiving over 61 mandates. This means that the political right enjoys an overwhelming majority in the country, since there are two other supposedly right-wing parties, headed by Naftoli Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman, that are aligned with the opposition as opponents of Bibi Netanyahu. In any event, if the polls are accurate, then Netanyahu should have no reason to worry; if anything, he should be highly motivated to move up the next election before the political winds shift. And there is one more noteworthy conclusion to be drawn from these polls: The incitement against chareidim and against the draft law has not made the slightest impact on projections for the upcoming election.
In a Direct Polls survey published at the end of last week, respondents were asked: “If elections were held today, which party would you vote for?” The results were as follows: Likud — 35 mandates; Bennett 2026 — 20 mandates; Shas — 10 mandates (one fewer than in the previous survey); the Democrats, headed by Yair Golan — 9 mandates (also down one); Yisroel Beiteinu — 9 seats (again, one fewer than in the previous poll); United Torah Judaism — nine seats; Otzma Yehudit, led by Itamar Ben Gvir — eight seats (an increase of one); Religious Zionism — four seats (a decrease of one); Ra’am, the Arab party led by Mansour Abbas — six seats (an increase of one); Chadash–Ta’al, the Arab party led by Ayman Oudeh and Ahmed Tibi — five seats; and Yashar, led by Eizenkot — five seats (an increase of one). Parties failing to cross the electoral threshold include Yesh Atid (led by Yair Lapid, which makes this the third consecutive survey by this firm in which it fails to cross the threshold), the Reservists (more on them in a later article), Blue and White (led by Benny Gantz), and Balad (a third Arab party). Overall, the poll shows the coalition bloc receiving 66 mandates, while the opposition bloc takes 43 seats and the Arab parties win eleven mandates.
Knesset Speaker Castigates Lapid
Yair Lapid’s most prominent feature isn’t his mind; it is his vicious tongue. His recent speeches have consisted of little more than a bundle of insults and barbs. It is a vicious cycle: The more he flounders politically, the more he increases his derisive style, and the coarser and cruder he becomes, the more he loses popularity. Crude words and insults do not serve politicians well. Last week, Lapid set a new record for shameful rhetoric during the official state visit of the head of the parliament of Paraguay. The visitor was a guest of his counterpart in the Knesset, Amir Ochana, and was honored by the Knesset members for standing with Israel during these troubled times. In another event that received extensive media coverage, the Paraguayan visitor also met with Prime Minister Netanyahu. For lack of an alternative, their meeting had to be scheduled during a break in Netanyahu’s trial in the District Court in Yerushalayim, which only served to accentuate the absurdity of placing a prime minister on trial during such a turbulent period of time.
For Lapid, the meeting in the courthouse was fodder for another diatribe against his political rival. At the beginning of his party meeting in the Knesset that Monday, Lapid declared, “Instead of the president of the Paraguayan parliament visiting Nir Oz [a kibbutz that was ravaged during the October 7 massacre], he was brought to the court. This is a disgrace. Ochana’s behavior is the conduct of the speaker of half a Knesset. Netanyahu has become an embarrassment to the State of Israel on the international stage.” This wasn’t the first time that Lapid referred to Ochana as “speaker of half the Knesset.” He previously used the same insult in a stormy Knesset session when Ochana refused to refer to Justice Yitzchok Amit as the chief justice of the Supreme Court. Ochana took umbrage at the insult and warned him, “If you call me that again, I will not allow you to speak.”
When Lapid repeated the term this week, Ochana was offended once again and released a scathing response: “The leader of the opposition, MK Lapid, used the word ‘disgrace’ today. I would like to tell you what I consider a disgrace: Speaking out of ignorance as a hobby is a disgrace…. I did bring the president of the parliament of Paraguay, Dr. Raul Latorre, to the Gaza envelope. Do you want to have a competition over who has brought more world leaders there? I am ready for it. I was there not long after October 7. We visited Kibbutz Kfar Azza, we met survivors, and we talked with the families of victims who did not survive. We watched a 47-minute film of the atrocities together, and we were deeply affected by it. He then returned to his country and passed resolutions in his parliament expressing solidarity with Israel and recognizing Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as terror organizations, with all the associated implications. Paraguay opened its embassy in Yerushalayim in the middle of the war and voted together with Israel in every vote in the United Nations, even as part of a small minority.”
The Knesset speaker also denounced Lapid’s decision to boycott the appearance of the visitor from Paraguay in the Knesset. “Raul Latorre is one of Israel’s greatest friends in the world,” Ochana wrote. “He is the first leader from Latin America to visit Israel on a solidarity trip in the middle of the war. Today, you attacked him by boycotting his traditional brief speech to the Knesset in honor of his arrival. It is important to have an opposition to the government, but it is a disgrace to become an opposition to the State of Israel. But that, opposition leader Lapid, is what you did today.”
Ochana went on to denounce the court system as well, for forcing him to arrange for the prime minister to meet with the visiting dignitary in the courthouse. “In advance of his present visit, we requested and received the prime minister’s agreement for the visitor to meet with him in his office. The prime minister then asked the court system to change the date of his hearing, and his request was denied. We were therefore forced to hold the meeting in the court. That is indeed a disgrace, but whose disgrace is it?”
Tefillin Law Approved in Preliminary Reading
Last weekend, the secular press reported on a “legislative blitz” in the Knesset. Of course, this was highly misleading. There was no blitz at all; in fact, the Knesset ended its workday earlier than usual due to Chanukah, and it didn’t even manage to complete its entire agenda for the day. What did happen, though, was that the chareidi representatives halted their boycott on legislation, which made it possible for new laws to be approved after waiting a full month and being postponed from one week to the next. One of those laws was a bill penned by MK Galit Distal-Atbaryan, which requires secular schools to permit students to wear tefillin on the school premises. This law evoked an outpouring of criticism from the hostile secular media, but it passed by a large majority and with ample support from the government.
The members of the government are continuing to introduce new laws; this Knesset has already passed the 6300th bill. Most of those laws will never actually pass, but they are on the Knesset table. MK Osher Shekalim, for instance, introduced a bill that would strip benefits from senior figures in the State of Israel for certain offenses. An army officer who encourages reservists to refuse to serve in the army, or encourages sanctions on Israel with actions such as filing a complaint in the Hague, or who otherwise spreads slander against Israel’s security establishment (such as by leaking damaging videos to the foreign press, as in the Sde Teiman affair) would lose the right to burial in a cemetery section reserved for national heroes and would be stripped of pensions and other benefits associated by law with their status. Osher is probably aware that the most effective punitive measures are those that affect the pocket. His law was informally dubbed the “Golan Law” after Yair Golan, the chairman of the Democrats party, who has made a habit of tarnishing Israel’s reputation with his outrageous statements, such as his claim that Israeli soldiers kill babies in Gaza as a hobby.
Another law, proposed by MK Oded Forer and his colleagues, would deprive prisoners of the right to vote. As I’ve mentioned in the past, this is part of a broader ploy: After jailing all the Torah learners in the country, they hope to deprive them of their voting rights and thus to shift the balance of power dramatically. Meanwhile, Simcha Rothman, followed by Avi Maoz, introduced an amendment to the “Who Is a Jew?” law that would require a conversion to be halachically valid for the convert to be considered legally Jewish. However, it is possible that this amendment will not accomplish anything. Legal experts speculated many years ago that even if the law is altered as they plan, the Supreme Court might rule that even a faux conversion performed by a Reform clergyman has the status of a “halachic” conversion in the eyes of the law.
Another bill that deserves attention was submitted by Tzvi Sukkot and proposes to fully extend Israeli sovereignty and control over the Me’oras Hamachpeilah compound. In the explanatory notes, Sukkot lays out the history and significance of Me’oras Hamachpeilah, the individuals buried there, and Avrohom Avinu’s purchase of the site from Efron, as well as pointing out that the city of Chevron was built even before Yerushalayim. Sukkot explains that the site was turned into a mosque after the Arab conquest, and Jews were not permitted to pass the seventh step on the external staircase for centuries, until Chevron was liberated in the Six Day War and the Jewish presence in the city was renewed. Ever since that time, Jews have been given only partial permission to enter the site and to daven there. Sukkot’s bill proposes to place the site under full Israeli sovereignty and jurisdiction.
Finally, MK Meir Porush, the former Minister of Yerushalayim Affairs, introduced a bill proposing a special grant for the purchase of apartments in Yerushalayim.
Gas in Neve Yaakov
Anyone who monitors the activities of the chareidi members of the Knesset will recognize that they are closely monitoring every area of interest. They attend Knesset sittings and committee sessions, submit motions for the agenda, and they deliver speeches on special occasions. They are among the most prominent individuals in the Knesset, where the chareidim are always a prominent presence even when the room is almost empty. But what I appreciate most about them is that no problem is too small or insignificant for them to tackle. Other politicians might balk at dealing with trivial matters that seem to be beneath their dignity, but UTJ and Shas have always seen the needs and requests of individuals as some of their most important causes. Of course, they address the issues of import to the entire community as well, such as the scourge of shul desecrations, the struggles of students who wish to wear tefillin in public schools, or the need to widen the road leading from the Shilat junction to Modiin Illit. But they are also perpetually available for the lone citizen whose needs are unmet — even the man who is in prison and is being denied the right to wear tefillin. (These aren’t just theoretical examples; all of these issues were recently handled by the chareidi representatives.) Uri Maklev is perhaps one of the most prominent MKs known for dealing with the needs of the individual.
Why am I mentioning this now? Because I spotted two similar parliamentary queries, one submitted by Yosef Taieb and the other by Yoni Mashriki, both of which deal with the same issue: a worrying odor of gas detected in the neighborhood of Neve Yaakov. One of the queries was submitted to the Minister of Environmental Protection, while the other was sent to the Minister of Internal Security. Each query had more or less the same text: “I have been contacted by residents of Neve Yaakov in Yerushalayim, who reported that every few days, the neighborhood is pervaded by gas that causes a burning sensation and tearing of the eyes, to the point that people run indoors and close the shutters to avoid it. This even led to a car accident when a female motorist was unable to see the road. This is a severe ecological menace that is causing suffering to many people, especially infants and the elderly. Neighborhood residents speculate that the gas is being directed against the adjacent Arab community but is diverted to the Jewish community by the winds. I would like to ask: Has your office received complaints about this matter? If so, were the complaints examined? If no complaints were received, would you be willing to investigate the matter based on this query?”
The Knesset members deserve high praise for tackling an issue that may seem marginal to some, but that is immensely significant to the residents of Neve Yaakov. Bli neder, I will let you know when the responses arrive.
