Why do people who believe in a god need a rabbi, priest, minister or any other human being to be a conduit between them and their god. These religious leasders are no different than the shamans who knew enough to scare people when there was thunder or lightning.

This would bring Israel one step closer to a theocracy....terrible idea.

This is very scary!! Let's hope this bill is thown into the toilet where it belongs.

But lets fearmonger and make it like the bill is going to pass so the govt can lose secular votes. Ben Ari's party isn't in the govt. This bill is going nowhere. But ynetnews wants to take down bibi so they use a stupid bill by ben ari who isn't even in the govt. The headline makes it look like this is a coalition bill when it isn't and this bill isn't going anywhere.

I understand the need for freedom of speech. However when those who voice their opinions cause harm to come to another human being, I wonder where to draw the line. The Torah is filled with many things that in the twenty-first century would not be acceptable. While I maintain that we should keep trying to find relevance in the Torah. I don't believe that incitement of hate should be one of them. Countless lifes have been lost due to one person or a group of people who believe that their interpretation of religious text is the only way to view it. We need only to look to history for the examples. Freedom of speech does not give you the right to spread hate.

Sorry, but no one is above the law. I think our Christian brothers taught us that lesson.

rabbis NOT . And this has to be said , even if i completely oppose those named MK's .

It is past high time that the US disconnect itself from this farce known as Israel. We tried to protect Israel by supporting dictators in countries all over the Mid East. Then we went to war in Iraq to plant a military presence there .. for Israel. Now we have Rabbis and political parties hating gentiles, and the entire world hating the US? It needs to STOP, and Israel must learn to abide as good neighbors or simply cease to exist. ENOUGH!

that's just the point No 30! They are suggesting a law "The bill asserts that "rabbis will not bear criminal responsibility and be immune to any legal action as result of the publication of a Jewish law essay, endorsement of any book, or any written or oral expression pertaining to Israel's Torah." and not embezzling funds etc etc that you mention. All the idiots who have written should read the suggested law first before commenting.

Maybe you would like to explain to a childs mother when a rabbi molests her children as we have been seeing in recent reports that the Rabbi is immune from prosecution. Just wandering?

Rabbis are not elected officials, but rather the "teachers" of various religious sects. And we know how divisive they are against each other as well. What next, if they call for the elimnation of secular Jews, will they also be exempt. Some of our leading rabbinaical figures of the past were reviled by mainstream 'rabbis". Such a Bill,in itself goes against our teachings.

Freedom of speech is only for people with whom they agree. Everyone else is an inciter.

MK's may vote immunity, but the rabbis will still be risponsable. It is a hilul H'.

Rabbis are not gods they are only men, many who abuse their standing in communities, etc.

In case you havent heard incitment to murder is not freedom of speach, naturally when leaders of other religions preach murder to Jews you will be silent i presume ?

As an engineer, am I immune if I publish how to build a waste storage and it leaks after it is built and people get sick from contamination? If an attorney writes a defense of a murderer who really is guilty, is he immune? If a politician writes a law that when implemented leads to a disaster, is he immune? There should not be moral immunity nor an implementation immunity for rabbis who may be as professional as engineers, attorneys or legislators. What those rabbis will write may breed monsters the caliber of Igal Amir and you know it. I sense you are an intelligent person who is burying his head in the sand to serve a religious agenda. But you cannot fool all of us on this board, you know.

A bill should be passed granting immunity to anybody called Abutbul or Abergil

So rabbis are above the law....because they are rabbis and can't be wrong. You pass wacked-out, anti-democratic laws like this and you can expect to lose a lot of support in the USA. Pretty soon we will have a Jewish Iran.

In Ben Ari's world anything can be said in the name of "Israel's Torah".

No one should be immune from the law, and Rabbis of all people should stand up and take responsibility. They are supposed to be a moral force for good. This law excepts them from the ordinary and will only encourage crime and lawlessness. The Rabbis should be the first ones to refuse.

Dream on Sh'ass !

The rabbinical system lead by the rabbis has preserve the cultural ,national and spiritual identity of the Jewish people for thousands of years.They have maintained the Jewish cultural heritage and demography in diaspora throughout world history. I think the rabbis deserve some immunity.Extreme Secularism destroys the cultural, national and spiritual inheritance of a people.All nations and peoples are driven by their spiritual and cultural inheritance so Israel should not destroy his.Spirituality is inseparable from human existence.

I agree that freedom of speech is a high good. But, as #28 already mentions, what about muslims inciting "Kill all the Jews!". Would you approve that as well as freedom of speech?

Isn't this immunity something that the Ayatollahs in Iran are enjoying as well. Can we please here in Israel start separating religion and state like in any other modern democratic state. Thank you.

Wrong. All we (the US) did was for ourselves. If the world hates us it's because of us. It's Israel's neighbors that are the problem. Hamas is shooting rockets into Israel. Hezbollah and Iran threaten annihilation. What would the US do if these things came from Mexico? Which they don't, by the way. Your standards are both warped and very low.

The tragedy is that no one who is attacking these Rabbis have read the controversial book in question because Israeli intelligence has confiscated all the copies. Our agency got a copy of the book before the massive confiscation took place and we have offered to lend it to reporters who have been criticizing the book without reading it. Not one reporter has come toy Beit Agron to borrow the book. The book in question provides a compendium of views on the subject of warfare with civilian populations. People prefer instead, to rely on the rumor that the book calls for Jews to murder unarmed Arabs when they encounter Arab civilians in combat. Where is the Hartman Institute's perennial call for ethics and intellectual honesty, at a time when Shai Nitzan a Hartman grad, spews his wrath and indicts Rabbis for endorsing a book that he never read. www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

Most rabbis’ preferred and still prefer to follow the Talmud than the Torah and the Tanach that is why they failed to see and understand the coming of the Messiah, till this day they do not seem to understand the prophecies that pointed to His coming. No mere human is infallible. I hope the veil they have over their eyes is soon lifted so that they can understand and accept the message in the Bible. YAHUSHUA will return when Israel declares; blessed is He that comes in the name of YAHUWAH. Obviously that will take some time and Israel will suffer much before that happens. We should all have the right to free speech, being a rabbi or an MK does not give someone immunity from the law of the land that rest of the citizens must uphold. 2Corinthians 3:7-18, John 5:18-47 Matthew 23:37–39, Psalm 118:22–26.

Non-religious Israelis are on your side, Jon. I agree with you. We hate religious fanatism like this and certainly think killing non-Jews is insane.

I'm a Rabbi, who's going to publish a holocaust denial paper. How's that law looking now?