The Knesset this week passed two new bills, one of which makes sense in light of recent events in Israel. The other is utterly reprehensible.
First some background. Over the past few weeks — after a televised report in Israel featuring a sobbing, scared 8-year-old girl — media in both the Jewish state and internationally exploded with coverage of Jerusalem’s haredi community. Stories of a little girl being spat upon while walking to school and a female soldier being harassed on a public bus dominated the headlines and news reports.
A majority of Jews around the world, including the leadership of American Orthodox Jewry, strongly condemned this Israeli haredi harassment of women.
In reaction to a police crackdown on perpetrators, haredi demonstrators on Dec. 31 donned yellow stars and striped concentration camp uniforms, similar to those the Nazis forced European Jews to wear, and took to the streets to express their disgust.
The Knesset took swift action, passing a bill that bans the misappropriation of Nazi and Holocaust symbols.
Free speech defenders took exception, but the facts speak for themselves. Germany has long banned the depiction of swastikas and other Nazi symbols. Many countries around the world —- nations
that revere free speech — ban Holocaust denial.
That’s because these symbols and actions desecrate the memory of the Holocaust and its victims. This is particularly true in Israel, where 200,000 Holocaust survivors still reside, according to Reuters.
Thus we applaud the Knesset for taking this strong step.
On the other hand, the same parliament on Jan. 10 passed a bill that would impose draconian punishments on illegal immigrants crossing into Israel, including automatic detention without trial for up to three years.
Few immigrants slipping into Israel are jihadists bent on mayhem. They are mostly African refugees fleeing oppression. Lengthy detention without trial is far too severe a punishment.
Illegal immigration poses challenges for many nations, the United States among them. Considering Israel’s extraordinary security concerns, we understand why the government must take steps to protect the borders.
Yet the harsh speech we hear from some lawmakers (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called illegal immigration “a national scourge”) and the punishments meted out by this new law add up to an overreaction, unbecoming of a nation that should understand the plight of refugees better than any other.
So, true to the spirit of democracy in action, we saw positive and negative developments in Israel this week. Mistakes will happen, but Israel, like the United States, remains on a bumpy road to a more perfect union.