Reform and Women of the Western Wall petition the High Court: They want disciplinary action against Rabbi Yosef 

June 10, 2020   

The Reform Movement and the Women of the Western Wall today (Wednesday) filed a petition with the High Court of Justice demanding that Rabbi David Yosef, rabbi of the Har Nof neighborhood in Jerusalem, be placed under disciplinary proceedings for what they call "inflammatory and partisan statements." Rabbi Yosef is the rabbi of the Har Nof neighborhood in Jerusalem. He is considered an employee of the Religious Council, who is subject to the disciplinary law applicable to state employees. According to the petitioners, while in his public position, Rabbi David Yosef has been speaking out for years against the Reform Movement in Israel, against the Women of the Western Wall, and against the Supreme Court. The petitioners also complain that Rabbi Yosef even expressed support for the chairman of the Lehava organization, Ben Zion Gopstein, who is currently on trial. Rabbi Yosef, a member of the Shas Council of Elders, also expressed public support and called for voting for the Shas party. The petition was filed against the authorities authorized to take disciplinary action against Rabbi Yosef - Civil Service Commissioner, Attorney General, Director General of the Ministry of Religious Services and Chairman of the Jerusalem Religious Council. The petition states: "In these statements, Rabbi Yosef violated the disciplinary law applicable to him - both because it involves behavior that is inappropriate for his position or behavior that is likely to harm the image or good name of the civil service as stipulated in the Civil Service Law, and because it involves prohibited partisan statements contrary to the provisions of the Civil Service Law." Upon filing the petition, attorneys Meital Arbel and Orly Erez-Lachovsky said: "Rabbi Yosef has been using his public position for several years to humiliate and incite against the Reform movement and against the Women of the Western Wall, and also calls for support for the Shas party without justification or justification. "Despite the clear and ongoing violation of the disciplinary law applicable to him, no disciplinary proceedings were taken against him. The incompetence of the Civil Service Commission and the other bodies responsible for the disciplinary law of neighborhood rabbis is serious and requires the intervention of the court. The public service must reflect norms of tolerance and respect for the various publics in Israeli society and refrain from inflammatory and degrading statements." MK Yinon Azoulay: "The goal of the women of provocation is to provoke inflammatory and divisive discourse, as every Rosh Chodesh they openly trample on the law, in a violent and nauseating manner. "Their delusional petition against the great Gaon Rabbi David Yosef, Shlita, deserves all condemnation. The Gaon Rabbi David, who feared no one, all his commandments are for the sake of heaven, and continues in the path of Maran Ha-Gar"a Yosef to discourse in ways that are pleasant, and without bias." The Liba Center said in response to the Reform movement's demand to prosecute Rabbi David Yosef: "The Reform movement continues to conduct itself with violence and try to silence the rabbis of Israel. "The rabbis of Israel will continue to state their position - the position of the Torah, without fear, and as the public in Israel wants to hear, and it is better that those who have destroyed and are destroying Judaism in the United States do not decide for the rabbis, the continuers of the Jewish chain of generations for thousands of years, what is permissible and what is forbidden for them to say.".