The passing of the Kotel Bill through Knesset should worry us all

The government of the world’s only Jewish state are progressing legislation that would prevent a huge proportion of World Jews from praying in their own way at the holiest site in Judaism.

Central to Israeli democracy, as enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, is a commitment that the State of Israel “will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions”.

The ‘Kotel Bill’, which risks criminalising progressive prayer at the holiest site in Judaism, rejects these core values.

In my role as president of the Union of Jewish Students, I know how strongly Jewish students feel about Israel. Our policy, debated and passed each year at UJS Conference, does something we talk a lot about at UJS – it holds multiple truths at once. Our students have called on us to celebrate Israeli culture, support our Israeli students, and stand against the BDS movement on campus and in British society at large.

But they also want to see a critical engagement with the racist rhetoric and settler violence from elements of Israeli society. Many students, for example, have been horrified by the introduction of a potentially discriminatory death penalty law, championed by Itamar Ben Gvir.

Students want us to champion cross-communalism in Jewish life, including in Israeli society. I am clear-eyed in my belief that we in the Diaspora, who stand strong against those who seek Israel’s destruction, have the right to ask it to be better.

UJS, and the 10,000 students we represent, are proud to be one of our community’s cross-communal organisations. At our annual convention last November, we held five prayer services – Explanatory, Masorti, Orthodox, Progressive, and Sephardi.

We ensure that all our events are accessible to the broad spectrum of British Jews. When we sing Jewish songs, our students contribute from a breadth of wonderful traditions. Our rabbi road trip programme has brought leading Rabbonim from across denominations to campuses nationwide.

UJS also takes students on trips to Israel each year. Those groups are intentionally cross-communal, representing the variety of Jewish practice in the British community. If fears about the Kotel Bill come to pass, we would be forced to split up our groups into those who are welcome to pray at the Kotel in their tradition, and those who are not. We are not prepared to do that.

Our ongoing ‘7 weeks, 7 values’ campaign focuses on a different kabbalistic value each week of the Omer. This week’s value is tiferet – harmony. We aspire to build a harmonious Jewish life across denominational differences. Every Jewish student is welcome at UJS, no matter their affiliation or means of practising Judaism. That diversity is our very greatest strength, and our communal leaders must call out threats to Jewish harmony in Israel, as we would in our own community.

Many of our community’s young people fear for a future of Jewish life in which we turn against each other across denominational battle lines. The shame of last summer’s demonstration, which saw Rabbi Charley Baginsky and Rabbi Josh Levy heckled from stage, still rings in our ears. What sort of Jewish future refuses our fellow Jew the right to pray?

The diaspora must not be silent at this crucial moment. If we care about Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people, we must stand up and ensure our views and values are heard loud and clear.

• Louis Danker, President, the Union of Jewish Students