Itongadol/AJN.- MKs collect 102 signatures from Council of Europe MPs; Rivlin: Intervention in matters of Judaism is not legitimate.
The Knesset\’s efforts to fight a Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) resolution to ban circumcision bore fruit this week, when the PACE Presidium decided to put an Israeli counter-resolution on its agenda.
"We expect Europe to change its approach to the ritual circumcision ban and other issues related to freedom of religion and conscience," MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud Beytenu), who submitted the resolution with 102 signatures from PACE MPs collected by MKs in recent months, said Tuesday.
"Intervention in matters of Judaism is not legitimate. I believe that the PACE Presidium\’s decision will eventually lead to the decision [banning circumcision] to be reversed and will create a new atmosphere in Europe," Rivlin added.
The resolution will be brought to the PACE Bureau, a broader forum than the Presidium, on January 27, which is also International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Bureau will vote on whether or not to bring the resolution to the PACE Plenum in April.
The Knesset’s draft resolution reads: “The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in full respect of ages-old faiths and the basic right of freedom of religion, and reiterating its longstanding advocacy of religious tolerance declares hereby that the circumcision of male children, in contrast to female genital mutilation, is a religious rite, performed for thousands of years. The Parliamentary Assembly recognizes that male circumcision is a basic and vital tenet of Judaism and Islam, and an important tradition in a number of Christian denominations.