NEW YORK/ JERUSALEM. 8 MAY 2006) Citing a need to inform the North American Jewish community of critical discussions currently taking place in Israel, leaders of the Israel Democracy Institute today briefed the senior leadership of the Jewish community in New York regarding its efforts to create and implement a “Constitution by Consensus” for the State of Israel.
The briefing, hosted by Bernard Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot and International Co-Chair of the Israel Democracy Institute, comes at a time when discussion of the need to create a constitution for Israel has become a major legislative agenda in Israel. The meeting allowed the Institute to describe extensive work that it has performed in this area, the major compromises that have been achieved, and the serious hurdles that Israel faces as it makes this historic move forward.
Attendees at the briefing included leadership from such organizations as the American Jewish Committee, Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, Hadassah, the Anti Defamation League and the Jewish National Fund,
IDI President, Dr. Arye Carmon, explained to the group that IDI had been working on a draft constitution for some four years. “In anticipation of the time when Israel’s demanding social needs would call for a clear set of ground rules, the IDI has been hard at work, bringing together the varied sectors that make up Israel’s multi-ethnic and multi religious society, to create a draft constitution that represents the best road for gaining consensus. With Jews from over 37 different countries, an Israeli Arab population of nearly 20% and degrees of Jewish observance ranging avowed secularists to the most ultra of Orthodox, clearly much discussion was needed.”
Dr. Carmon, accompanied by IDI Senior Fellow Yedidia Stern, a member of the Bar-Ilan University faculty of Law and Uri Dromi, IDI Director of International Outreach and former press spokesman for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, outlined the laborious process that went into the creation of the proposed “Constitution by Consensus,” as well as the kinds of compromises that were achieved through working with literally hundreds of leaders from throughout Israel under the guidance of Hon. Meir Shamgar, former Chief Justice of Israel’s Supreme Court.
Stern, who saw one of his students convicted of the assassination of Rabin in 1996, pointed out, that “for too long we have let the tensions in Israeli society simmer below the surface. Looking at survival in strictly military terms, we have not taken the time to deal with the very serious tensions that could create fissures clearly as threatening to Israeli society as any outside attacking force. These tensions can be abated with a clear set of ground rules that a constitution would provide.”
Dromi discussed what impressed him during four years of community forums and other discussions, stating that “it was gratifying to see that all Israelis, Jew and non-Jew, religious and non-religious, rich and poor, understand that survival is based on compromise. They may not like the decisions that have to be suggested, but they all realize the necessity of making these decisions.”
In trying to put the meeting in perspective, Marcus explained that while the creation and enactment of a constitution in Israel is clearly an Israeli matter, Diaspora Jewry could play an important role in the process. “Ours is not the responsibility to create the compromises through which Israelis of all stripes can create a roadmap for the future. That is something only those who live in Israel can do for themselves. What we can do, however, is stress to our friends and partners in Israel how vital a constitution is for the country’s future and the critical importance of supporting its enactment.”