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Journalism of Courage
Three months into his third term as Prime Minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu is battling an unprecedented crisis — tens of thousands of Israelis are in the streets, protesting his government’s plans to “reform” the judicial system. They say Netanyahu’s ultra-right coalition has declared war on Israel’s democracy, and that they will not rest until he abandons what is effectively a plan to end the independence of the country’s judiciary.
On Monday, the government seemed ready to take a step back. It has been decided that most of the draft bills that would clip the wings of judges will be put to vote only at the end of April — not by April 2 when the Knesset breaks for recess, as had seemed likely earlier. This gives the Prime Minister a potential opportunity to negotiate both with his coalition partners who are determined that the planned overhaul must go through, and with its opponents who are determined to ensure that it does not.
But the government will still vote on the changes planned to the appointment of judges, one of the most contentious elements of the package.
Netanyahu, who Prime Minister Narendra Modi describes as his “good friend”, returned as Prime Minister on December 29 last year at the head of what is seen as the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. His Likud has 32 seats in the 120-member Knesset, ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties have 18, and an extreme-right alliance has 14 seats.
Even before the new government was formed, as a quid pro quo by Likud to keep its allies, the Knesset passed a law enabling anyone convicted of an offence but not sentenced to prison to serve as a minister. This helped a member of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party convicted of tax offences with a suspended sentence to take charge of three ministries.
Another law enabled two ministers in one office. Thus the leader of the Religious Zionism party who is the finance minister, came to hold charge of the defence ministry that controls civil affairs in the West Bank.
Parties to the coalition agreed on proposals for laws to boost settler expansion in the West Bank, and for the overhaul of the country’s judicial system. Both issues are at the centre of the current protests.
In 2016, with the US abstaining, the UK, France, Russia, and China voted in the Security Council in favour of a resolution that said Israeli settlements in the West Bank had no legal basis, and were in violation of international law. Their existence and creeping expansion of the settlements is viewed internationally as antithetical to the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine issue. There are about 700,000 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem at present, and their presence is a point of daily social, political, and security tensions.
In January, The Times of Israel reported on a “mini-annexation” of the West Bank — plans by Netanyahu’s government to build 18,000 housing units, and to approve existing settlements yet to receive authorisation. On February 13, the government approved nine unauthorised settlements, and greenlighted 10,000 new housing units in existing settlements.
Germany, France, Italy, the UK and the US issued statements opposing the expansion. The plan was put on hold after the US facilitated back-channel talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority — this was intended to ward off a Security Council resolution that the United Arab Emirates had drafted, and which the US would have been compelled to veto. Had it come up, the resolution would have put Western allies in the Security Council on opposite sides just as the first anniversary of Russia’s war in Ukraine approached — a time when it was especially important to present a picture of unity.
Ultimately, the Security Council put out a statement that only reiterated that “continuing Israeli settlement activities are dangerously imperilling the viability of the two-State solution based on the 1967 lines”. But the suspension of the February 12 plan enraged Netanyahu’s allies on the right — and the government declared there was no freeze on building new settlements.
In the West Bank, tensions have been running high. According to media reports, 70 Palestinians have been killed in raids by Israeli security forces in the West Bank since January; over the same period, 13 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks.
On February 25, two Jewish settlers who were brothers were killed in the town of Huwara in Nablus. The next day, about 100 armed Israeli men, accompanied, according to some reports, by Israeli security personnel, went on the rampage in Huwara. Palestinian properties were set on fire, one person was killed, and 350 injured. “Price tag” violence is common in the West Bank, but the size and scale of the Huwara attack — compared by a right-wing commentator to the Nazi Kristallnacht pogrom — was reported to be unprecedented.
The Israeli judiciary has a reputation for fierce independence, and the draft laws to shackle it include a bill to change the composition of the nine-member committee that selects judges. This panel currently has the minister of justice and another minister, the Supreme Court president and two judges, two Knesset members, and two representatives of the bar. Under the new proposal, government-nominated members would be in a 7-4 majority in an expanded committee.
Another bill proposes to divest the Supreme Court of its power to strike down legislation passed by the Knesset — the House will be able to overturn such rulings by a simple majority.
A third bill takes away the High Court’s determination that it can strike down Basic Law in cases where the Knesset has misused its authority. Israel has no constitution, and many of the rights and freedoms that its people enjoy are contained in Basic Law.
While the bills must pass through several stages of discussions and four rounds of voting, the government is confident its majority will allow it to push them through.
For more than two months, liberal Israelis and opponents of Netanyahu turned out every Saturday to protest against what they saw as the unravelling of the country’s democratic project. Early this month, as some bills moved through the first stages, huge numbers of Israelis registered their protest on the “day of national disruption”, chanting “Democracy, Democracy”.
Protesters clashed with police who used stun grenades and water cannon, Israeli media reported. “Where were you in Huwara?” protesters shouted at police, referring to the alleged free pass to rioters in the West Bank town.
Pro-government lobbies say the reforms are necessary against the judiciary’s overreach, while critics say the plans spell a march to authoritarian rule, with no checks and balances against the government’s majority in parliament.
Several former security officials have come out against Netanyahu’s plans. One former head of Mossad said it would be legitimate for the armed forces to disobey orders from an illegitimate government. Israeli reservists have said they will not report for duty if the “coup” against the judiciary goes through. One ambassador has resigned. Capital is said to be exiting the country quietly. Israel’s flourishing tech entrepreneurs have joined the protests.
Israel is in turmoil like never before. Netanyahu’s critics say he has trapped himself with his right-wing partners and is losing his traditional strengths — a good security situation and a healthy economy.
In Washington, concern is growing at the developments in Israel, and for the future of the two-state solution.
The State Department has criticised as “repugnant, irresponsible and disgusting” the statement by Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, who is also in charge of the West Bank, that Huwara should be “wiped out”. There have been calls for the US to be more vocal against Netanyahu’s attempt to tame the judiciary.
There have been calls to sanction the minister both in Israel and from the powerful Jewish diaspora in the US, and on a recent visit to the US, he could meet no one of note in the Biden Administration.
Similar action has been sought against Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who entered the Al Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem in an act several Israeli politicians said would spike tensions.
Prominent Jewish personalities in the US are asking Biden to save “the Middle East’s only democracy” from destruction.
