Shavua tov, Jerusalem,

Thank you for inviting me to speak on behalf of the Tag Meir Forum.

We formed Tag Meir eleven years ago in order to fight hate crimes, racism, incitement, terror, and acts of revenge. We go on solidarity visits and, to our sorrow, also to consolation visits to mourners on all sides.

Last Monday, our representatives attended the ever so sad funerals of Hallel and Yagel Yaniv, z”l, who were murdered in Hurawa by despicable people. On Tuesday, we went to Har Brakha to console the Yaniv family for this horrific murder, and on Wednesday, we went on a solidarity visit to Huwara after the rampage of hundreds of Jews in the village, in which scores of homes and hundreds of vehicles were set ablaze. We saw there on the main road of the village homes that were set afire through the piling up of tires in their doorways. There was very little distance between what we saw in Huwara and the murder of the Dawabshe family in the village of Duma, which we also saw.

In Tag Meir are organizations and movements from all points of the rainbow of Israel’s society. Jews, Arabs, secular, religious of all kinds—haredim, religious Zionists, Reform, Conservative, from the country’s center, its periphery, settlers, young, and old.

We believe that there are two peoples between the Jordan and the Mediterranean and in any possible political solution, two peoples will continue to live together, side by side. We will not be thrown into the sea, and the Palestinians will not be cast into the desert, and therefore, the sooner we hasten to a lasting peace, the better for everyone.

Permit me, please, to turn to the important neighbor who hosts us here on Rehov Hanasi, President’s Street, for almost two months:

Your Honorable Mr. President:

The words that you spoke in your address to the nation a few weeks ago still resound, and I quote:

“I turn to the representatives of the government, the head of the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, the Justice Minister, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, in a heartfelt request to stop the devils’ dance.”

To our regret, Levin, Rotman, and their colleagues show contempt for the justice system from every possible platform and seek to neuter and abolish its power and authority, and the revolution in governance is already underway.

How is it possible to include someone who says that the State of Israel must wipe out Hurawa, together with those who seek to defend the principles of justice, freedom, and equality of the Declaration of Independence?

The State of Israel will not be Jewish if it behaves in the pathological and dark way that Smotrich, Ben Gvir, and Fogel seek to have it follow. That State will simply cease to be.

The Jewish racists seek to change the rules of the democratic game in order to legalize the illegal outposts that are planted on private Palestinian land and in order to allow the wiping out of [Palestinian] settlements, after the manner of Smotrich and Ben Gvir.

Mr. President: There is no symmetry between those who seek to attack the State of Israel, the justice system, and the Declaration of Independence, and those who stand at the head of the justice system, above all, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Very soon, to our distress, disgraceful laws will come to the Supreme Court for deliberation and each of us will have to decide between Supreme Court decisions and those of the coalition headed by Netanyahu, Der’i, Smotrich, Levin, Ben Gvir, and Almog Cohen.

It is still possible to prevent this legal crisis, whose outcome, who will be able to mend?

Your Honorable Mr. President: In the face of the real threat to the systems of justice and law and the foundations of democracy, we turn to you to stand firm and to protect with all vigor the fundamentals of justice, freedom, and equality articulated in the Declaration of Independence. We wish you strength and determination, because it is precisely for this reason that you came into this office.

We close Tag Meir events by singing, ”Who is the person who seeks life,” and I will be happy if you all join me in singing this song together:

Who is the person who seeks life
Loves the search for good in life.
Restrain your tongue from evil
And your lips from deception
Leave evil, do good,
Seek peace, indeed, pursue it.
 
Text: Book of Psalms, Music, Barukh Hayat
 

Dr. Gadi Gvaryahu, Director, Forum Tag Meir