“Anyone who wants to show solidarity with Israel must stand up today and fight against the decline of democracy in the State of Israel.” With these words, Marian Offman and Christian Ude call for a broader positioning against the current political events in Israel. The wish is aimed at society, politics and also at the Israeli religious communities in this country, as Offman confirmed when asked by SZ.
The city of Munich’s commissioner for interreligious dialogue and Ude, who was the mayor of the state capital until 2014, are concerned “that Israel’s democracy and rule of law will be overturned by a right-wing religious government,” as they write in a joint statement published on Tuesday : “Agreed with hundreds of thousands of democratic demonstrators in Israel, we condemn the fact that in Israel the protection of the constitutional order through the judiciary is to be abolished and that the parliamentary majority is increasingly taking a stranglehold on the judiciary. That would be the end of the separation of powers and democracy of Israel.”
Offman and Ude (both 75, both SPD) have been campaigning for the strengthening of Judaism in Munich and the state of Israel since the 1960s – despite occasional controversy on other political issues. From 2004 to 2012, Offman was Vice President of the Jewish Community for Munich and Upper Bavaria.