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portrait
Status: 07/07/2021 3:46 a.m.
Israel’s President Rivlin, who is leaving office today, has earned the reputation of a father figure for all Israelis in recent years. That made him an antithesis to ex-prime minister Netanyahu.
From Benjamin Hammer,
ARD studio Tel Aviv
Last May, Arabs and Jews attacked each other in several cities across the country. We are talking about conditions similar to civil war. This is the situation in which the man who has wanted the country for years – President Reuven Rivlin – reports.
Rivlin, 81 years old, is something like the nation’s grandfather. When addressing the people, he often says: “Dear ones”. But it would be unfair to reduce Rivlin and his more representative office to this designation. His role in his seven-year tenure was too important for that. Regarding the violence between Jews and Arabs in May, he says: “This land belongs to all of us and, more than anything, we must be loyal to the country and its laws.”
Search for a model of “contemporary Israelity”
Rivlin wanted to be the president of all Israelis. He describes his view of his country as follows:
There is a non-religious tribe, a religious tribe and an Orthodox tribe in Israel. And there is the Arab tribe. All, without exception, are locals. If we fail to find a contemporary model of modern ‘Israelity’ that gives each of these tribes their freedom, if we fail to find a model of coexistence with mutual respect and recognition, then we are our strength as a nation in grave danger.
Resisted the right drift
Rivlin, the Reconciler – although he belongs to the right-wing Likud, which drifted politically to the right under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And although Rivlin did take positions that can be described as nationalist, especially before his term in office.
Political scientist Dahlia Scheindlin believes Rivlin will continue to advocate that Israel – if possible – also control the occupied West Bank. However, especially in recent years, Rivlin has become a fighter for human rights and an independent judiciary. Also because his political camp swung in an ultra-nationalist direction.
Rivlin tried to evoke the unity of the country and reached out his hand to the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel at the beginning of his term in office. Rivlin, says the political scientist, “has in recent years contributed to ensuring that there is still a strong, other side of this country – one that does not allow itself to be carried away by populism and nationalism.” And that is good news – “because it means that it is not yet a foregone conclusion that Israel will move in an extreme direction”.
Rivlin and Federal President Steinmeier have more than one business relationship in common. This is one of the reasons why Steinmeier visited Israel again shortly before Rivlin left office.
Image: dpa
The opposite pole
Rivlin was an anti-Netanyahu even though both belonged to the same party. Netanyahu, who many refer to as a splitter, wanted to prevent Rivlin from becoming president in 2014. He failed. As unpopular as the populist Netanyahu was in many European capitals, Rivlin was and is popular – also in Berlin.
Netanyahu was partly responsible for the fact that there were four new elections in Israel in just two years. Rivlin criticized that. What remains of him is his advocacy for the country’s democracy. And that too will stay: his speeches in which he addressed his fellow human beings with “My dear ones”. This evening Rivlin is handing over the office to his successor, Yitzhak Herzog.
From nationalist to reconciler: Portrait of the outgoing President Rivlin
Benjamin Hammer, ARD Tel Aviv, July 6th, 2021 11:12 pm
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