President Rivlin:
“These are difficult days in Israel. Disagreement has become a political tool in the hands of the parties to get votes. It is totally opposite to the wonderful charter you are proposing as a statement by the Knesset. Whatever disagreement there is in the Knesset, it must be a place of respect. When respect is lacking, we are in a clear social and political crisis. MK Arbel, the charter that you have secured the signatures of 70 MKs for is a sacred text and woe be us if it is not implemented.”
President of Israel Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin today, Tuesday 20 October / 2 Cheshvan, received the “Mutual Respect Charter” in a meeting with its author, MK Moshe Arbel (Shas), and its signatories: Minister for Social Affairs at the Ministry of Defense Michael Bitton (Kachol Lavan); MK Ofir Sofer (Yamina); MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz); MK Zvi Hauser (Derech Eretz); MK Osama Sa’adi (Joint Arab List); MK Yorai Lahav (Yesh Atid); and MK Eliyahu Baruchi (United Torah Judaism)
Arbel presented the president with the Knesset’s “Mutual Respect Charter” that he wrote. The charter calls on members of the Knesset, particularly in light of the coronavirus pandemic, to espouse the values of mutual respect, partnership and mutual responsibility, tolerant and meaningful discourse, and to set a personal example to the public in order to fight the division and hatred.
The president thanked the members of Knesset for their support for mutual respect, saying “Over the millennia of its existence in exile, the Jewish people lived with the disagreements between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai. We also lived with disagreement when the Zionist movement emerged and continued to do so here. We did not always agree with the principles on which the State of Israel was founded, but we were always committed to respect and preserve them.”
“These are difficult days in Israel. Disagreement has become a political tool in the hands of the parties to get votes. It is totally opposite to the wonderful charter you are proposing as a statement by the Knesset. Whatever disagreement there is in the Knesset, it must be a place of respect. When respect is lacking, we are in a clear social and political crisis. MK Arbel, the charter that you have secured the signatures of 70 MKs for is a sacred text and woe be us if it is not implemented,” he added.
Deputy Speaker of the Knesset MK Moshe Arbel: “I would like to thank the president for opening his home to us for this singularly important objective. The aim of the ‘Mutual Respect Charter’ is not, heaven forbid, to stop disagreement that is so vital for democracy, and not, heaven forbid, to stop the range of views or even of criticism. It’s aim, as is written in it, is to protect mutual respect despite the weighty disagreements! Its objective is to allow us to fight for our principles in a way that does not create hatred or division. I am here today to make two small requests. Firstly, please! – if you see we have, heaven forbid, strayed from what we signed up to in this charter, remind us. This is not just a piece of paper but a binding declaration of intent. And another small request from the president – if there are, and there will be, we hope, further elected officials who ask to join this charter as has happened in the few hours between it being printed and us coming here to Beit Hanasi, please open the doors of your house and your heart to the additional signatories so that all representatives of Israeli society are part of this discourse. It is a discourse of belief that your own way is right, but that gives the same intention to those with whom you do not agree.”
Minister for Social Affairs at the Ministry of Defense Michael Bitton: “We bear great responsibility as elected officials, with the eyes of the people on us, and we must be more active in expunging division, polarization and rising violence from Israeli society. If elected officials do not act respectfully, no-one will be respectful to their fellow citizens. That is why the time has come to ask that we all, members of Knesset and members of the government, to behave in a way that reflects mutual respect. I would like to thank and express my appreciation for my friend MK Moshe Arbel for this important and welcome initiative. There is nothing more natural than to launch it with the good wishes of the president, who is a symbol that respectful discourse – which is so vital for Israeli society -is possible. In this way, we are following in the path of the students of Hillel the Elder and Aahron, who knew to listen to their friends first and only then to express their own position and so influenced generations to follow.”
MK Ofir Sofer: “Unity and respectful discourse must come first and foremost from elected officials, We can disagree on any issue, from a place of mutual respect. A week ago, I felt I attacked Minister Amir Peretz in a disrespectful way in the Knesset and I immediately apologized. I congratulate MK Moshe Arbel on this important initiative, and hope and pray that it will succeed in bringing change.”
MK Yehuda Baruchi: “We do not need to reach agreement between us, even on the most important issues. We must, though, understand the rationale of the other side. Let me give an example from a world I know better: when learning Gemara, we spend a lot of time learning about things that were never adopted as legal rulings. Why? Because it is clear that in order to understand properly the accepted view, we must also learn the counterargument. As a member of the Knesset I have been disappointed in myself, more than once, when I was unable to understand the rationale of the other side. When that does not happen, it is clear to me that I have not learned the issue fully enough. When it does happen, even if I remain absolutely opposed to my colleagues, it remains within the boundaries of discourse.”