Thanks to David Ruben for sharing this:
We are philosophers in the United Kingdom who are also Jewish. We all support the right of Israel to exist; most of us have visited Israel on many occasions, for professional or other purposes. None of us has a history of criticising Israel in public.
However, the Israeli government’s current plan to undermine the separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches of government poses a threat to the State of Israel that we cannot ignore. Those like us who care passionately about the health of Israel as a democratic Jewish state cannot remain silent.
A real democracy is not just a simple ‘rule by the majority’. Both individuals and minorities must have protected rights, and the judicial branch of government is there to ensure that this is so. In the absence of some system of checks or restraints on the executive and legislature, no government can aspire to be a democracy.
We fervently hope that the Government of Israel will turn away from this course of action and retain its place amongst the world’s democracies.
Dr. Nicholas Bunnin
Faculty of Philosophy & China Centre
University of Oxford
Professor Kenneth Ehrenberg
Professor of Jurisprudence and Philosophy
University of Surrey
Professor John Hyman
Grote Professor of Philosophy
University College, London
Professor Guy Kahane
Professor of Moral Philosophy
University of Oxford
Dr. David Levy
Department of Philosophy
University of Edinburgh
Professor Ofra Magidor
Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy
University of Oxford
Professor Simon May
Department of Philosophy
King’s College, London
Doctor Eliot Michaelson
Reader in Philosophy
Department of Philosophy
King’s College London
Associate Editor, Inquiry
Professor David-Hillel Ruben
Emeritus Professor of Philosophy
University of London
Professor Jonathan Wolff
Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy
Blavatnik School of Government
University of Oxford
Governing Body Fellow
Wolfson College Oxford
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