Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer's support for ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry's boycott of the settlements should disqualify him from serving on a committee tasked with preparing legislation for a proposed Basic Law, Likud faction chairman Yariv Levin argued in a letter to Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar Tuesday.
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In a letter to Sa'ar, Levin wrote: "You are known to have appointed a committee for the preparation of Basic Law: Legislation for the government. As I have noted in the past, the establishment of the committee itself was harmful and unnecessary as comprehensive legislation on the subject was already placed on the Knesset's desk after being formulated in a way that guarantees the Knesset's standing and the proper democratic regulation of the matter."
He continued: "Moreover, I have in the past alerted attention to the appointment of the committee … could result in an outcome the opposite of that desired, especially in view of the positions of some of its members and Professor Kremnitzer in particular.
"Yesterday, I was presented with a petition that was also signed by Professor Kremnitzer within the framework of which support was given to the Ben & Jerry's company for its decision to boycott Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria. It goes without saying that someone who signed a petition in support of boycotts of Israeli citizens and Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria is unfit to serve in any government body and certainly not a committee directly appointed by you as justice minister."
Noting Housing and Construction and Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin, a member of Gideon Sa'ar's own New Hope Party, was one of several lawmakers to initiate legislation aimed at fighting the boycott of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, Levin wrote: "A situation in which one member of your party supposedly works to prevent boycotts while you appoint someone who supports boycotts as a member of a government committee on such an important and central issue is absurd and hypocritical on its face. Under these grave circumstances, I ask you to announce the immediate cancellation of Professor Kremnitzer's appointment as a member of the committee you established to prepare Basic Law: Legislation."
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