Knesset passes law requiring fealty pledge from diplomats
Legislation, panned as ‘hypocritical’ by opposition MK, requires envoys to swear ‘loyalty to the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The Knesset enacted a law requiring Israeli diplomats posted abroad to swear loyalty oaths to the country as a Jewish and democratic state, passing the bill through its final readings on Wednesday.
Backed by former foreign minister Eli Cohen, who was replaced by Israel Katz earlier this week, the bill amended the law on diplomatic service appointments to require heads of diplomatic missions and consulates to swear allegiance as a precondition to receiving their official appointment.
The text of the oath reads: “I undertake to maintain loyalty to the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”
Ahead of the second and third readings, the legislation was subjected to harsh criticism by Labor MK Gilad Kariv, who accused Katz of “hypocrisy” for supporting it while refusing to back a legislative amendment to the controversial nation-state law — passed in 2018 — which would define Israel as democratic.
“Why only diplomats?” he asked, noting that lawmakers, ministers and chief rabbis aren’t required to make the same pledge.
Responding to Kariv, Likud MK Amit Halevi declared that Kariv was right, stating that “we need to change the rules” so that other government employees would be required to swear loyalty in the same manner.
“When a person works in public service, they are, above all, serving the Jewish state,” he said, adding that diplomats are “fighting for the Jewish identity of Israel” and should reflect “our values.”
Hitting back at Kariv, Cohen said that the law was only necessary because the previous coalition, of which Kariv was a member, had voted to appoint then-Meretz lawmaker Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi as consul in Shanghai.
An Arab Muslim, Rinawie Zoabi has said that she does not connect to Israel’s “Jewish soul,” and before her brief stint as a lawmaker, she co-edited a document that did not recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Her appointment was ultimately canceled after a public outcry.
“Why, after 75 years, do we need this legislation? That coalition is the reason,” Cohen argued, adding that “only those who believe in the state and its values can represent it.”
