Naomi Chazan calls on Diaspora Jews to lobby against Israeli government

On a visit to Australia, the former MK said Israel was facing three intersecting crises and Diaspora Jews should not hesitate to get involved.

One of Israel’s leading progressive voices has called on Diaspora Jews to lobby their governments to protect Israel’s democracy against the growing power of anti-democratic forces.

On a visit to Australia with the New Israel Fund (NIF) Australia, Professor Naomi Chazan said pressure from foreign governments had been effective in tempering the actions of Israel’s religious right coalition government. Diaspora Jews should lobby their governments to speak up and continue the pressure, she said.

Chazan, a former President of NIF, was a member of the Israeli Parliament for 11 years with the progressive Meretz party and is known for her championing of human rights, particularly women’s rights.

“There’s a tendency outside of Israel – I heard it by the way in Canberra yesterday - to say, ‘We won’t interfere in Israeli internal affairs.’ Is what is going on in Israel for Jews outside of Israel an internal affair? Or is it an issue that embraces all Jews everywhere? I would argue very strongly that for Jewish communities throughout the world what is Israel is critical to their Jewish identity.

“Ninety-five percent of Jews today live in free societies. In the 21^st century, and I would say probably since the beginning of the post-World War II period, the human values of equality and equity and justice and freedom have been central to Jewish identity. They are an integral part of being a Jew in the 21^st century and if Israel diverges from that it becomes a problem for Israel and it becomes a problem for world Jewry.”

Chazan said Diaspora Jews should use their influence with their own governments to speak out against the anti-democratic policies of Israel’s government.