RUTHFULLY YOURS

This week, Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran broke protocol. Following the swearing-in ceremony of incoming Supreme Court President Asher Grunis, the attendees did what is customary at public events such as these: They stood and sang the national anthem.

Joubran, the first Israeli Arab to have a permanent appointment to the country’s highest court, kept silent. Hatikvah, after all, is a song about the “Jewish soul” yearning to be a “free nation in the land of Zion and Jerusalem.” And though Joubran, like all of his counterparts in the Palestinian territories (and many of his fellow Arabs with Israeli citizenship) may have designs both on Zion and on Jerusalem, he is not a Jew. Therefore, he didn’t feel right about joining the choir.

Joubran’s abstaining from singing the anthem, written as a poem by Naphtali Herz Imber in 1878, was as much his legal right as it was his personal prerogative. That’s the beauty of living in a pluralistic democratic society; a citizen can express himself as he pleases, as long as he is inflicting no harm on anyone else. And, despite claims to the contrary on the part of ill-wishers, Israel is the epitome of such a society. That Joubran is among the cream of its crop, occupying a place on the bench of the most politically powerful judiciary in the Western world, is but one example of the Jewish state’s true nature.

It is thus that Joubran came under blog attack for his taking liberties with a ritual observed by all others in his illustrious position. But let’s be honest about the amount and degree of the flak he received. It was beyond mild in comparison to the unabashed and uncensored vitriol he would have received had he been a haredi Jew refusing to identify publicly with the raison d’etre of the state. Nor would anyone in the Knesset or the op-ed pages of the Hebrew press have rushed to his defense as they have been doing. Indeed, if Joubran had been named Schwartz, he would have been tarred, feathered, and discredited – if not disbarred – by now.

Of course, that would not happen. A haredi Jew who shared Joubran’s lack of identification with the message of Israel’s national anthem would not sit on its Supreme Court. He would neither be welcome to do so, nor wish to give legitimacy to a body he does not recognize.

Joubran is free to practice his religion as he sees fit. He is free to vote for the Knesset candidates he supports – whether or not they openly side with Israel’s enemies. He is certainly free to distance himself from the lyrics of a patriotic hymn whose lyrics make him uncomfortable.

But with these freedoms come responsibilities. This is why Supreme Court justices sit on their high perches bedecked in black robes, while we average Joes in the gallery below pay them deference – and their handsome wages, to boot.

If singing Hatikvah is too much of a sacrifice for a judge to make, let him go back to the law firm from whence he came – or apply for a job in Ramallah.