MK Yaakov Asher (United Torah Judaism) sharply criticized Deputy Attorney General Avital Sompolinsky during a heated Knesset debate Monday over the proposed Torah Study Basic Law, accusing her legal opinion of hypocrisy and applying a double standard.

“You spit on us and tell us it’s rain,” Asher said. “This document is a document of hypocrisy, not a legal document.”

Asher argued that Sompolinsky criticized the proposed law for being vague, while earlier Basic Laws, including Human Dignity and Liberty and Freedom of Occupation, were also enacted with broad language in order to reach political consensus. He said those laws were intentionally drafted with ambiguity to help secure political agreement.

He also rejected the opinion’s description of Torah as part of the Jewish people’s heritage and “collective memory.” Asher argued that the Jewish people’s right to Eretz Yisrael is rooted in the Torah itself and in Hashem’s promise to Avraham Avinu, not merely in history or collective memory.

“The right we have to this land comes from the Torah and from Torah study every day,” Asher said. “That is what has sustained the Jewish people throughout history, and that is what sustains us in Eretz Yisrael today.”

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