Israel is dangerously moving towards autocratic rule, the first step of which has been taken when the Knesset (Parliament) passed a law curtailing the power of Israel’s Supreme Court last week. The Opposition walked out of the 120-member House and the Bill got 64 votes in its favour. The law is part of a wider effort to turn the judiciary subservient to the government, in other words, the executive. Whatever separation of powers among the legislature, executive and the judiciary was there in Israel’s hybrid democracy has now been eroded. Israel, it may be noted, has no Constitution. Eleven basic laws are the foundation on which its parliamentary democracy rests. The law passed by the far-right controlled government of Benjamin Netanyahu now prevents the Supreme Court from striking down government decisions thought to be inimical to the principles of democracy, fairness and justice.
In the absence of a written Constitution the Supreme Court in Israel has, since the birth of the country, been using “reasonability” standard that gives judges powers to overrule government decisions and laws passed by the legislators. Netanyahu and his allies belonging to far-right forces are vehemently opposed to the powers of the Supreme Court which stand in the way of fulfilment of their respective agendas. While Netanyahu, facing charges of corruption, fears the apex court may pronounce him guilty and destroy his political career, the far-right forces cannot carry out their agenda of legalising occupied territories and driving away their legitimate owners – the Palestinians. Hence, the two parties have joined hands to render the Supreme Court powerless so that they can act and pass laws to suit their interests without fear of being overruled by the top court. In reality this step, marking a “dark day” in Israel’s history, as critics are terming it, takes away a key element of the court’s oversight powers and opens the way for corruption and improper appointments. Under the new provisions even the appointment of judges will effectively be decided by the government of the day.
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After the vote, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the architect of the plan, said parliament had taken a “first step in an important historic process” of overhauling the judiciary.
The new measure has triggered further division in Israeli society and politics. Despite the ruling alliance’s claim that it is only fulfilling the desires of the majority of people who have voted them to power, the fact remains that only about 25 per cent of the country’s population are in favour of implementing the judicial reform. Even thousands of military personnel have declared their refusal to serve under a government taking steps that they see as setting the country on a path to dictatorship. Those moves have prompted fears that the military’s preparedness could be compromised. “These are dangerous cracks,” military chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi wrote in a letter to soldiers.
Alarmed by the development, thousands of people in different parts of Israel, including Tel Aviv, have taken to the streets in protest against the Bill. There were even clashes recently between police and demonstrators.
US President Joe Biden’s administration, which has frequently spoken out against Netanyahu’s government and its overhaul plan, made only a tame protest against the adoption of the Bill by the House warning the legal changes would trigger further division.
If the law is enacted, it will undermine the independence of the nation’s judiciary and its role as the guarantor of its liberal-democratic values. But this is exactly what Netanyahu and his far-right allies – Religious Zionism embracing an ideology of Jewish supremacy and United Torah Judaism advocating ultra-Orthodox way of life want. The far-right parties’ efforts of robbing the Palestinians of their land as also to neutralise the judiciary are closely linked.
An almost similar thing is happening in Manipur where land grab by the majority community has plunged the state into unprecedented violence, killing, arson and rape. These incidents in North East India are not only the need for ‘lebensraum’ (living space) but also triggered by political interests that have eyes on the hill areas exclusively for highly profitable mining activities. Meanwhile, the Indian Supreme Court, by warning the Union and the State’s government about its intention to step in if the perpetrators of violent crimes against women are not immediately brought to book, has set in motion the efforts by groups favourable to the ruling political party, to ask for impeachment of the Chief Justice of India (CJI). For this order regarding Manipur, the CJI is also being trolled by the right-wingers.
Undoubtedly, the success of the far-right in Israel is primarily due to Netanyahu, who has normalised outright racism, political muckraking and talking downright lies. The ruling coalition in Israel had proposed all but abolishing the role of the Supreme Court as the sole check on executive power. India seems to be mirroring many of these aspects. Democracy is in peril, globally.
