A new bill presented last week by ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism seeks to grant rabbis comprehensive immunity against criminal prosecution over incitement, Israel Hayom learned Sunday.
The legislative proposal, sponsored by United Torah Judaism MK Yisrael Eichler and Shas MKs Moshe Abutbul and Uriel Boso accused law enforcement of trying to muzzle rabbis by preventing them from publicly expressing opinions pertaining to current affairs, citing that such statements constitute incitement.
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"A rabbi shall not be held criminally liable and shall be immune from any legal action due to the publication of a halachic essay, the endorsement of a published book, or any written or oral expression of opinions," the bill contends.
Such a law is necessary, its explained, over the fact that "dozens of rabbis have been summoned for police questioning over the publication of halachic essays, endorsing written works, or even over answers given to public queries on matters of the Torah.
"Artists, writers, and academics are granted academic and artistic freedom by the State Attorney's Office and publish articles and petitions, create exhibitions and express their opinions unhindered, even if it includes incitement against a person or a public.
"In contrast, the State Attorney's Office is persecuting rabbis in an attempt to muzzle them and to subject the enteral word of the Jewish Halacha to their approval."
Such discrimination, the bill continues, "Contradicts the State of Israel's fundamental values, first among them the fact that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. Moreover, this practice by the State Attorney's Office violates the freedom of religion guaranteed to all citizens under the Declaration of Independence."
Any infringement on rabbis' freedom of expression "reeks of McCarthyism" and "turns Israel into a Third World country," the bill warned.
Eichler, Abutbul, and Boso did, however, stress that "this bill does not aim to grant rabbis immunity against anything that does not have a direct correlation with their religious and halachic duties."
A similar bill was presented by the National Union party in 2011 and was struck down in its preliminary reading in the Knesset.
Rabbis wield enormous power over their followers, often affording them the clout to influence the course of matters on the public agenda.
Most infamously, in the weeks leading up to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's 1995 assassination, several extremist rabbis issued a "Pulsa diNura," or Kabbalistic "death curse," against him over his signing of the Oslo Accords. The move, lambasted from across the political spectrum, was widely viewed as a decree allowing harm to come to the prime minister.
There have been several incidents in recent years when highly influential rabbis have either issued decrees or endorsed calls for radical action, including against IDF soldiers in cases of evicting illegal outposts, Palestinians in the West Bank, and non-Jews, prompting authorities to exercise vigilance with respect to such public statements.
Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira of Yitzhar, for example, was arrested several times in recent years on suspicion of incitement to violence over his controversial 2009 book The King's Torah, in which he explicitly states that it is permissible for Jews to kill non-Jews – including children – who "threaten Israel."
The controversial "rabbis' immunity bill" sparked an immediate backlash, with Women of the Wall, a feminist organization seeking to secure the rights of women to pray at the holy site freely, warning it would give rabbis a carte blanche for incitement.
"This is an outrageous bill that opens the door for the continued, unchecked incitement by rabbis against entire sectors and groups, including Women of the Wall," said Yochi Rappeport, the group's executive director.
"We hope that this immoral bill is shelved and call on its sponsors, to engage in some in-depth soul-searching," she said.
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