Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu responds to the concern expressed by Rabbi David Stav over the prospect of large number of citizens emigrating over the judicial reform controversy and criticized the conduct of the Israeli left, which he accused of engaging in an "intimidation campaign."
"I suggest not creating panic over anything. The right thing to do is to grow up. There was a group here that was trampled exactly 17 years ago [when thousands of citizens were expelled from their homes during the Disengagement] and still we realized that we don't have another country. All of our grandparents came to a country that had wasteland and swamps. You can't be childish because things are getting difficult or because you have a far-fetched imagination about what the Reasonableness Standard means," Eliyahu told Channel 12 News.
"Nothing happened here, the sun is shining. The haredim will not become monsters - the haredim, the religious and the traditional are good people and will be fine here. Those who are not mature enough to understand what the Reasonableness Standard is and want to leave the country - let them grow up. I don't understand all this hysteria. We are a people who knew how to overcome much more difficult things," he said.
"I say to the left - look yourselves in the eyes. Fight in a democratic way. These threats to leave the country sound so childish and immature. What happened to the Israeli left that it is so weak? Did the Reasonableness Standard break it?" he asked.
Earlier, Rabbi David Stav, the chairman of the Tzohar rabbinical organization, warned that he is seeing an increase in requests for marriage certificates by people who are thinking of leaving the country.
"Israeli society felt this year a rift that seemingly came upon us out of nowhere. A very difficult reality that we have to overcome. I am optimistic that we will get out of this crisis, but I have a great fear that some of us will not be with us at the end of the crisis. I hear of threats from doctors and others to do a 'relocation' and to leave the country and my neighbors say they are buying passports. This is worrying," said Rabbi Stav.
He added, "It is clear to me that the number of people leaving the country if there is no significant change here will continue to increase and this is a great disaster. In the rabbinical office where I work, the number of applicants for ketubahs and marriage certificates for immigration needs is higher than it's been in previous years. There are 6-10 applications a day, whereas in previous years, it was once a month."