Is Israel losing its status as the only democracy in the Middle East with the policies of the right-wing religious government? It almost seems so. The context for the Israeli government’s “reforms” is the question of what kind of state the Israelis want to live in. And that doesn’t just mean the Jews with an Israeli passport, but also the Arab Israelis, who have now been demoted to second-class citizens. Do Israelis want to live in a democratic statehood that protects its minorities, or in a primarily Jewish one in which the will of the majority is ruthlessly enforced?
The Israeli parliament has passed the first part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s controversial judicial reform. In the final third reading, 64 MPs voted in the Knesset in Jerusalem for a law that removes the power of the Supreme Court to dismiss government decisions as “inappropriate”. The opposition boycotted the vote after all attempts to find a compromise failed.
Under the principle of “appropriateness”, which has now been overturned, the Supreme Court had excluded a member of the coalition from office. The appointment of Arje Deri as health and interior minister was “highly inappropriate”, it decided a few months ago. The leader of the Schas party had previously been convicted three times for tax evasion, bribery and fraud. In his previous political offices, Deri had failed “to serve the public loyally and lawfully,” the court found. It shouldn’t be long now before Netanyahu brings him back into government. The Supreme Court can do nothing about it now.
The fight over this law, which removes the power of the Supreme Court to dismiss government decisions as “inappropriate,” has divided Israel dangerously. Civil society has been taking to the streets for weeks, trying to influence the curtailment of the judiciary, which is unworthy of a democracy. Supporters and opponents of the reform by the Netanyahu government want more. The Supreme Court is a thorn in the side of the right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties in particular, which are part of the governing coalition, because it has restricted settlement construction in the Palestinian West Bank and strengthened the rights of reformist Jewish communities.
There has long been a dispute in Israel about whether religious men and women have to do military service like everyone else. Ultra-Orthodox men tend to concentrate entirely on their study of the scriptures. In return, they receive a modest amount of social assistance. The new government wants to establish the right to study the Torah. This would completely eliminate the ultra-Orthodox from military service and the labor market. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that the government is serving its clientele and providing billions of shekels to the ultra-Orthodox communities while they refuse to provide their children with basic education such as math skills.
One of the many fault lines in the highly diverse Israeli society is the antagonism between secular citizens, who have hitherto made up the majority. And the ultra-Orthodox, who – should high birth rates remain constant – will be tomorrow’s majority.
Those who have been taking to the streets against the judicial reform for the past seven months are the country’s broad middle class. Not only liberal, but also conservative and modern orthodox Jews who do military service, pay most of the taxes and are fed up with a dogmatic minority trying to dictate their lifestyle. The demonstrators receive support from many corners of society, and very vehemently from business. The “Business Forum”, in which the bosses of 150 of the country’s most important companies have come together, had declared Monday’s to be the day of the strike. Large shopping centers remained closed, and many companies in the high-tech sector followed suit. The powerful trade union umbrella organization Histadrut is now advising on a possible general strike.
And the Arab citizens in Israel? Most people from the Arab community have so far avoided the protests. While hundreds of thousands of Jewish Israelis have been taking to the streets for months to demonstrate against the disempowerment of the judiciary, Arabs, who make up almost 20 percent of the population, have stayed away from the protests. “What kind of democracy are the Israelis talking about?” says a Palestinian Israeli. “We Arabs live in a different situation than the rest of society,” she says. While demonstrators are calling for democracy to be preserved, they have ignored issues raised by the Arab population such as violence, occupation, gun control and the lack of basic rights for all.
Many Arab Israelis see no reason to defend the Supreme Court’s rights. Their accusation: Earlier decisions discriminated against Palestinians in Israel as well as in the West Bank and in Gaza. For example, with a law that defines the nature of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. This would make non-Jews second-class citizens. The Supreme Court has also made important judgments in recent years to protect the rights of Arabs in Israel, both individually and collectively. For the Palestinians, however, this is not enough. Statistics from the Israel Institute for Democracy show that Arab citizens are structurally disadvantaged and have less and less confidence in the Supreme Court. The schools in the Arab areas are therefore poorly funded, the level of education is lower, the chances of finding a job are lower and Arabs earn less.
“We have neglected the Arabs since the founding of the state of Israel: in health care, in the economy, in education,” say Jewish Israelis, who have opposed discrimination against the Arab population for years. When asked why there are no Arabs at the demonstrations, they reply that the Jews “are the occupiers. We have to fight for them,” say those who advocate equality for all Israeli citizens. Everything is likely to get worse. The Knesset recently passed a law that would in future punish Arab sex offenders more severely than Jewish ones.
So the prospects for Israel’s future are bleak, especially since agitators such as Police Minister Itama Ben-Gvir are announcing that this was “just the beginning”. In fact, the passage of the first law is just a stage victory for Israel’s government. Curiously, the Supreme Court is likely to deal with its own disempowerment soon. Petitions have already been announced from various quarters to have the new law rejected as “unconstitutional”. The protest movement will also continue to fight, on the streets and in parliament. Opposition leader Lapid has already announced: “We will not give up our children’s future.”
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