A former head of the Shin Bet security service is urging President Reuven Rivlin not to sign into law recently passed legislation defining Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
“According to the Basic Law, the presidential signature is required for the law to go into effect. Usually, signing off on a law is a matter of ritual and does not require special deliberation. This is not the case with this law – I believe that your hand will tremble once you reach for the pen,” writes Ami Ayalon in an open letter to Rivlin.
“If enacted, this law will place you, and the values you believe in and which have guided you in public life, before a dilemma: to violate your conscience or to fulfill your presidential oath of being ‘faithful to the State of Israel and its laws,'” he adds.
Ayalon, who went on to become a Labor Party lawmaker after leaving the Shin Bet, argues the law will undermine Rivlin’s efforts to promote national unity. He also says the law “negates the Declaration of Independence and debases its status as the foundation of our national values.”
Former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
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