Gallant: Those who undermine Declaration of Independence harm Israel’s moral standing

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says that those who undermine the Declaration of Independence undermine Israel’s moral standing.

Speaking at an Armored  Corp ceremony marking 50 years since the Yom Kippur War, Gallant speaks out against positions posited by his own government.

“Whoever undermines the standing of the Declaration of Independence harms the central moral pillar of the State of Israel,” Gallant says.

“Precisely when it seemed that there was nothing left to hold on to, in times of great pain and terrible tragedy, we as a people held on to the good of the country, the flag, the symbols and the Declaration of Independence — this scroll which is the opening chapter of the unwritten constitution of a country without a constitution,” Gallant says.

His comments come after last week the lawyer representing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government sparked an uproar, during a high-stakes High Court of Justice hearing on petitions against the first piece of judicial overhaul legislation, when he dismissed Israel’s foundational Declaration of Independence as a “hasty” document endorsed by unelected signatories that cannot be a source of legal authority.״

But Ilan Bombach, the attorney who is representing the government in the High Court since Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has refused to do so, replied that the signatories of the foundational document were unelected and that it was “unthinkable” to say the declaration must “bind all future generations.”

“Because 37 people were authorized to sign the hasty Declaration of Independence, which was still being drafted until the last moment, this should obligate people who came later?” Bombach responded.