The Aus­trali­an Jewish community is a deeply Zionist community. Israel is at the core of our Jewish identity and a focus of our schools, youth movements, syn­agogues, communal insti­tu­tions and, in many cases, our family con­nec­tions.

We celebrate Israel’s successes and achieve­ments. When Israel is under attack, we share the pain and suffering of our brothers and sisters. We defend Israel against the irra­tion­al hatred that is sadly increas­ingly pervasive through­out the world.

We recognise and respect that, being in the diaspora, we have different rights, but we are also deeply invested in Israel’s survival and the wellbeing of all Israelis and the Jewish people.

We believe that Israel must forever remain a Jewish and demo­crat­ic state, rooted in the vision of the prophets. Despite the incom­par­able chal­lenges that Israel has faced since its inception, the Jewish homeland has admirably upheld those prin­ciples as set forth in its Declar­a­tion of Inde­pend­ence.

It is from this position of uncon­di­tion­al love and con­nec­tion that we express our serious concern at the governing coalition’s proposals to make fun­da­ment­al changes to the rela­tion­ship between the Knesset and the judiciary with undue haste and in the absence of broad-based public support. We also view with deep concern other proposals in relation to religious pluralism and the law of return that risk damaging Israel’s precious and unique rela­tion­ship with Diaspora Jewry.

We call on the governing coalition to heed the call from Israeli President Isaac Herzog for genuine dialogue, based on his five prin­ciples for judicial reform, and to pause all of these con­tro­ver­sial proposals so that con­struct­ive dialogue can occur and a national consensus can begin to emerge.