Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai set off an uproar when he claimed that religious people can not accept democratic principles.
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai set off an uproar online following remarks he made about what he sees as a contradiction between religion and democracy.
Talking with Nadav Perry on his podcast, Huldai was asked, “You’re saying something harsh that I don’t agree with. You’re saying that anyone who believes in a supreme G-d can not accept democracy in the same breath?”
Without missing a beat, Huldai replied, “No. Since if you believe in him, you say he’s supreme. It can’t be that the Supreme Court rules against what’s written and what you believe. Therefore, religion, by its very nature, is anti-democratic.
“In religion, we go to a rabbi for everything. It is decided and written, and they tell you if something follows Halacha (Jewish law) or not. If the Halacha is law – then we’re Iran,” the Mayor added.
Channel 14 political commentator Yinon Magal commented on the remarks: “Ron Huldai is such an anarchist that he still lives in a world where you ask a religious soldier if he would listen to his commander or a rabbi. As if we haven’t seen this whole show of those who ‘listened to their conscience’ and announced that they would ‘stop volunteering for the IDF’ because they are ‘loyal to the kingdom and not the king,’ and oppose that the public, through its elected representatives in the Knesset, influence the identity of the judges (like in the rest of the world).
“And he is so ignorant that he has no idea about what being religious is like, and he has no idea what democracy is. Democracy, to him, is that his values rule. Even if that means that the minority rules the majority. In short, another ‘enlightened’ dinosaur,” Magal wrote.
