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Official photo of Reuven Rivlin, the 10th president of the state of Israel Photo by: Avi Ohayon, Government Press Office (Israel)- Wikimedia.

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Reuven Rivlin

Reuven Rivlin was appointed as Israel’s tenth president. He has been a member of Israel’s parliamentary body since 1988, serving as Speaker of the Knesset from 2003 to 2006 and again from 2009 to 2013.

After two rounds of voting, Israel’s parliamentarians elected him to a seven-year term today by secret ballot. Rivlin (known as “Rubi” or “Ruvi”), a native born Israeli who speaks fluent Arabic, comes from a family of 50,000 members worldwide, 35,000 of whom live in Israel.

Yosef Yoel Rivlin, Rivlin’s father, was a Semitic language scholar who translated the Qur’an and One Thousand and One Nights into Hebrew. His cousin, Lilly Rivlin, is a progressive writer and filmmaker who grew up in the United States.

“Can You Hear Me?: Israeli and Palestinian Women Fight For Peace,” her 2006 documentary, documented the joint activist efforts of Israeli and Palestinian women.

There are many contradictions in this right-wing Likudnik’s views, which explain why some of Israel’s most progressive Israelis respect him and believe he will be a suitable nonpartisan representative of the State of Israel in his largely ceremonial role as president.

1. Rivlin is a supporter of democracy, freedom of speech, and citizen participation

He has strongly opposed witch hunts against liberal Israeli organizations and has resisted right-wing politicians’ demands that the activities of left-leaning human rights organizations in Israel be halted and outlawed. Dimi Reider of the progressive Israeli news website. 

As Speaker, Rivlin’s dedication to parliamentary democracy (and democracy in general) saw him repeatedly turn against his own party and its allies, halting most of the anti-democratic legislation pushed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Lieberman’s Israel Beitenu, while also attempting to educate his fellow right-wing legislators on the dangers of nationalist populism.

2. Rivlin has consistently condemned Israeli society’s anti-Arab racism

He was enraged when he discovered that Arab construction workers on the Knesset grounds had red Xs painted on their protective helmets to distinguish them from foreign workers, and he demanded that the distinguishing marks be removed immediately. “We cannot allow the use of any markings that could be perceived as differentiating people based on race, ethnicity, or religion,” he stated.

Rivlin has condemned the Beitar soccer team’s supporters for their race-baiting and Islamophobia, as well as the team’s discrimination against Muslim players. “Imagine the uproar if clubs in England or Germany said Jews couldn’t play for them,” he said.

He has also spoken out against radical Jewish settlers’ proposals for ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem and condemned “price tag” attacks. Rivlin criticized the far-right United Jerusalem list’s election slogan “Judaize Jerusalem” in September 2013, calling it a “disgrace” and “incitement,” and calling for an investigation into whether the slogan constituted a criminal offense.

3. Rivlin is opposed to making Israeli Arabs’ (or, as many prefer to call them, “Palestinian citizens of Israel”) civic and political rights contingent on their service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

President of the State of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, at a ceremony honoring Service Year volunteers for the year of service for 5777  Photo by: Mark Neyman / GPO- Wikimedia.

“At best, these calls are right wing, and at worst, provocation,” he asserted. Simultaneously, Rivlin endorsed civilian service projects aimed at reducing the high unemployment rate among young Arab men and improving their quality of life in their own communities. “I believe that establishing a civil service structure within the Arab sector is a step that could benefit both the Arab sector and Israeli society as a whole.” “The Arab sector requires manpower, and young volunteers can help,” he said.

4. Rivlin, an outspoken supporter of the one-state solution, believes that in a single-state scenario, Palestinians in the West Bank should have full Israeli civil and political rights

Official photo of Reuven Rivlin, the 10th president of the state of Israel Photo by: Avi Ohayon, Government Press Office (Israel)- Wikimedia.

Most Israelis, both liberals and hardliners, oppose any one-state solution that would grant Palestinians Israeli citizenship. They argue that Rivlin’s stance would force Israel to choose between being Jewish and democratic. As Arabs were allowed to vote, they would eventually outnumber Jews, and Israel would no longer be a “Jewish state.”

To avoid this, most liberals continue to support a two-state solution, whereas right-wing hardliners want to expel as many Arabs as possible from the West Bank and Gaza while stripping Israeli citizenship from those who remain. 

Nonetheless, the idea that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is no longer feasible is gaining traction among Israel’s progressive left.

5. Rivlin has promised Arab citizens of “green line” Israel that they will not be forced to become citizens of a Palestinian state

If a “land swap” agreement is reached that swaps Israeli Arab cities and towns for Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank. Rivlin enraged Israeli hardliners in 2009 when he paid his first official visit as Knesset Speaker to Umm al-Fahm, Israel’s second-largest Arab municipality in “green line” Israel. Rivlin assured the town’s residents that they would not face “ethnic cleansing.”

6. Rivlin stood up for the rights of Arab Knesset participants when his own party and others were determined to take them away

President of the State of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, at a ceremony honoring Service Year volunteers for the year of service for 5777. Photo by: Mark Neyman- Wikimedia.

In 2010, he joined prominent civil libertarians in protesting the removal of Knesset Member (MK) Hanin Zouabi’s parliamentary privileges. MKs voted to deprive Zouabi of her right to leave the country, confiscate her diplomatic passport, and deny her legal fees as punishment for her participation in the Gaza flotilla’s attempt to break Israel’s boycott of Gaza, while refusing to allow Zouabi to speak in her own defense. Rivlin yelled at the shrieking MKs, “Let her speak!”

Despite her disagreement with Zouabi’s position, Rivlin defended her right to self-defense, saying, “I believe that everyone should have the right to speak their minds, even if what they say hurts me.”

(In 2008, Rivlin also opposed – and temporarily thwarted – taking away the pension of Arab Balad MK Azmi Bishara, who fled Israel after being charged with treason.) Rivlin argued that Bishara’s pension was untouchable until he was convicted of a crime.)

Prior to today’s election, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the hawkish, Russian-dominated Yisrael Beiteinu party, stated that he would not support Rivlin due to his opposition to the establishment of committees to investigate human rights organizations, as well as Rivlin’s defense of Arab parliamentarians’ rights.

7. Rivlin disagrees with Netanyahu’s ongoing criticism of the nuclear talks between world powers and Iran

“We must not contradict the United States on the Iran deal,” Rivlin wrote on his Facebook page. “A conflict with the US is detrimental to Israel’s vital interests.”

8. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to great lengths to prevent Rivlin’s election

After preventing Rivlin’s re-election as Knesset Speaker last year, Netanyahu attempted to thwart Rivlin’s rise to the presidency by frantically seeking a viable alternative candidate, suggesting the elimination of the position of Israel’s president, and attempting to delay the presidential election. Rivlin criticized Netanyahu’s leadership style in a 2010 interview:

“According to [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s worldview, ‘the majority can do anything, the leader can demand whatever he wants of those who entered the Knesset because of him, and he can force his opinion on them.’ That has the potential to severely harm democracy and bring the Knesset’s standing to rock bottom.”

9. Rivlin has earned the respect and support of Israeli opposition parties

President of the State of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, at a ceremony honoring Service Year volunteers for the year of service for 5777. Photo by: Mark Neyman- Wikimedia.

Meretz MK Ilan Gilon declared his support for Rivlin, while other Meretz members declared their opposition to Rivlin. Even before long-time Labor Party stalwart Benjamin Eliezer dropped out of the presidential race due to financial impropriety investigations, Labor MK Shelley Yachimovich declared she would vote for Rivlin regardless of party affiliation because he was “the most appropriate and suitable candidate for the position.”

Her compliments did not stop there: He is a model democrat, honest and uncorrupted, modest in his personal demeanor and statesman-like in his ideas and public behavior. It is unnecessary to speculate on how he will act as president. 

It is unnecessary to speculate on how he will act as president. Even as a member of the right, whose views are frequently diametrically opposed to mine, he passed the test, standing firm in defense of democracy.”

10. He’s known for being quite amusing

Ruby, the cousin of beloved comedian Sefi Rivlin, is known for her “quirky” sense of humor. When he was about to be ousted as Knesset speaker in 2013 (possibly because of a joke he made about Netanyahu’s wife), Rivlin said, “I got to hear my eulogies while I was still alive.”