Joint ECAJ and ZFA statement about the Israeli judicial reforms

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.