Knesset advances bill protecting Orthodox religious practices in public spaces

The Knesset votes 49-35 to advance a bill that would require public institutions to install mezuzahs, and would grant special protections to conducting Jewish Orthodox religious practices, such as laying tefillin, in public spaces, including criminalizing any interference with them.

The bill, whose terms have sparked outrage among liberal critics, was put forward by Likud MK Galit Distel-Atbaryan and Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kroizer. It is titled “Realization of Jewish Identity in the Public Sphere.”

The bill will now be sent to committee for preparation for the first of three readings needed for it to pass into law.

Public rituals such as laying tefillin and prayer in public spaces would be legally protected according to the new legislation, and any interference, even minor bureaucratic obstacles, might be considered a criminal offense.

Some of these practices have become battleground issues, most notably in September 2023, when Orthodox worshipers defied a municipal ruling and set up gender dividers at mass Yom Kippur prayer services in Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square, sparking an angry response from liberal activists and highlighting the deep societal tensions over public expressions of religious practice and gender segregation.

The most controversial clause of the bill calls for civil judges to pass exams on halacha, or Jewish law, in order to serve on the bench in secular courts, and designates the Grand Rabbinical Court the sole authority for disputes on the subject, leaving no avenue for appeal. It also appears to grant members of the Chief Rabbinate — who are not experts in Israeli civil law — veto power over the judicial appointments.

That clause is opposed by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation and is likely to be removed during committee deliberations.

“Historically, whether in exile or in the Land of Israel, regimes that sought to restrict the Jews and undermine the existence of the Jewish people began by persecuting external expressions of Jewish identity,” the bill’s explanatory notes state, arguing that “history has taught us that interference with the donning of tefillin, wrapping oneself in a tallit, affixing a mezuzah, or studying Torah is the first step on a terrifying slippery slope whose end is violent and murderous oppression.”

“The State of Israel has no right to exist if it does not allow Jews to fulfill their obligations toward the Creator of the World and to live according to their faith openly and without fear,” it adds.

Pushing back against the bill on the grounds that it smacks of religious coercion, Yesh Atid MK Meirav Ben Ari argues that it is similar to the government’s “Hametz Law” allowing hospitals to ban leavened products prohibited by halacha on Passover, which she says actually led to a backlash against observance.

Ben Ari rips up a copy of the bill. Responding to Ben Ari, Distel-Atbaryan states that several clauses will be removed as the bill progresses.