Garden of Eden: what they've published

Intro

0:00Garden of Eden proposes a national Jubilee program with debt relief and a basic income for citizens. The platform describes a gradual process without a monthly payment figure or a blanket cancellation of all debt. This is Close Read, and this is a series about what Israel's parties are promising to do in their own published words for

About this series

0:20English-speaking voters ahead of the October 27th election. One party per episode. I only use what the party itself has made public, their platform, their website, their official accounts, and on-the-record statements by their leaders. If they didn't publish it, it doesn't count. And if they publish nothing, that's the episode. Garden of Eden is led by Yeshua Israel Ben David. The saved election committee record gives it

Who they are

0:47the ballot letter Hey, Hey in Hebrew. I found a Hebrew online platform, a page of citizen bill proposals, and a homepage with additional proposed laws. The platform also includes a first 100 days schedule. These pages vary in detail. Some name an institution or a rule to change. Others state a goal. I'll keep that distinction as we go through the same checklist used for every party. The platform proposes a ministry of peace and reconciliation. It also calls for interreligious dialogue

Security and foreign policy

1:22and regional alliances, alongside protection of Israeli citizens and a fight against terror, crime, and violence. That gives us a proposed institution and some goals. It does not tell us what settlement the party wants in Gaza, what it would do about Iran or Lebanon, or how it resolved the Palestinian question. I couldn't find those separate positions in the reviewed party pages. I could not find a published position on a state commission of inquiry into October 7th

October 7 accountability

1:54in the pages reviewed. The trauma treatment proposals come later in the checklist. They do not answer the accountability question. The economic program is called the National Jubilee. The platform gives it a starting date of

Economy and cost of living

2:10January 1st, 2027. Its central proposals are debt relief and a basic income for citizens with limits on senior public officials' pay. The wording here on debt matters. The proposed jubilee law describes a gradual route for dealing with unmanageable debts and unusual interest rates. The published text does not promise cancellation of every loan or of every mortgage. It does not state an eligibility test or identify which creditors would bear the cost. For basic income, the platform describes building a gradual mechanism that lets citizens meet basic needs with dignity. It does not give a monthly amount, an age threshold, or a funding formula.

2:58So I can report the proposed mechanism, but I cannot turn it into a particular cash payment proposal. It also opposes limiting senior public officials' pay without publishing a limit. Its tax section calls for a gradual consideration of removing VAT and taxes that burden work and families. The VAT sentence in the save page is incomplete. So I'm not filing in a tax category. The tax does not identify. The platform names a public digital shekel as a tool for transparency and distribution. There is no technical design or monetary framework attached to that short entry. A separate citizen bill page proposes abolishing the annual vehicle licensing fee. The homepage says there would be an alternative mechanism, but does not describe that mechanism.

3:49There are proposals on the party website, but there is no enacted laws suggested. On housing, the platform calls for affordable homes, fewer planning barriers,

Housing

4:02fair urban renewal, and action on land prices. It does not publish a housing construction target or define who qualifies for assistance. Those are policy directions with the delivery details still missing from the page. The debt relief proposals do not specifically promise to erase housing debt or mortgages. The platform's proposed basic law includes constitutional recognition of a person's belief.

Religion and state

4:32Its reconciliation proposals also include inter-religious dialogue. I could not find a specific position on Haredi military service, Shabbat rules, marriage, conversion, or religious funding in reviewed pages. I am not inferring those positions from the party's religious language. The proposed basic law is called quote-unquote the person as a living sanctuary.

Judiciary and governance

4:59The party says it would recognize a person's dignity and freedom, including their body and mind, their family, belief, and property. The page gives that description rather than the text of a Finnish proposed basic law. There are several governance proposals. The state budget should be open to every citizen. And the homepage calls for mandatory publication of every government expenditure in real time. It also calls for severe criminal penalties for fraud in public service. The platform adds personal responsibility for corruption, for concealment, and for serious negligence by public office holders.

5:48The party also wants a secure public voting system. Citizens would use it to propose laws, to rank priorities, and to oversee the government. The page does not specify which votes would be legally binding, or how that system would interact with the Knesset and its votes. Another proposed system would let citizens send requests to the state, follow how they are handled, and receive an answer within a reasonable time. The platform calls for a shorter legal proceedings and for making the legal system accessible to every citizen. But I couldn't find a detailed judicial selection or attorney general proposal in these pages.

6:43The homepage has a citizen law card proposing free public education from birth

Education

6:52to age 18. It says the curriculum would include science and art, as well as nutrition and spirituality. the platform adds basic law and economics, financial education from a young age, and studies in crafts, agriculture, music, and leadership. It also calls for strengthening the status of teachers. It does not specify teacher salaries or explain how these curriculum changes would be allocated across age groups. The separate bill page has a different, much less specific, education summary. I am using the explicit homepage proposal for the age range rather than treating every education card as the text of one finished bill.

7:48The platform calls for preventative medicine and a national mental health program. Its proposed trauma law covers

Health

7:56post-traumatic stress, loneliness, anxiety, and violence, along with rehabilitation of communities. Those are the program areas it names. The published page does not give staffing levels, a treatment entitlement, or a dedicated budget. It also does not publish a new disability recognition formula. The party proposes reforming national insurance with an emphasis on rehabilitation

Social welfare, pensions, and the elderly

8:23and assistance with dignity. It also calls for protection of older people and people with disabilities, alongside children and families facing hardship. The platform also lists a basic living allowance for citizens described as a mechanism for basic subsistence with dignity. There is no separate pension formula, old age benefit amount, or eligibility schedule in the reviewed platform. The party's general principles say every person is created in the image of God, and

Arab citizens and minorities

8:59the platform names individual dignity and reconciliation. I could not find a separate policy program for Arab citizens or other minorities in the reviewed pages. I couldn't find a published position on immigration, absorption, or on diaspora relations in the party pages reviewed. The environmental section calls for restoring streams and open spaces, reducing

Immigration, Environment

9:26pollution and waste, and encouraging clean energy and planting. It also calls for protecting animals and strengthening local agriculture. There are no emissions targets or energy production figures in that section. Public transportation appears in the housing section, with a call to strengthen it and plan cities around people. I couldn't find a separate network plan or a transport budget in the reviewed platform. The platform ends with a first 100 days schedule. It proposes new cabinets, submissions of its

What they put front and center

10:01first laws and publication of an open budget. The last block of the schedule lists a 100 day report to the public, a first jubilee budget, a basic income pilot, and an initial public voting system. That is an implementation outline. The existence of a schedule does not fill in the amounts of eligibility rules missing from the individual proposals. There are proposals across much of the checklist, but no published position on an October 7th inquiry or immigration and

What's missing

10:33reviewed pages. Many of the programs also leave cost eligibility and legislative wording open. The basic income and debt relief proposals are good examples of that. That's what Garden of Eden is put in writing in the material reviewed as of this recording. Every source I use is linked in the description, most of them in Hebrew, so you can read them yourself. If they publish more before the election, I'll do my best to pin an update in the comments. Next is list number nine, Women's Voice, and the full playlist is linked below.