OPINION: Plot to curtail Israel’s judicial system is shoddy, dangerous and undemocratic
Andrew Freedman, a corporate and financial communications adviser at a major public relations firm, on the "menacing whiff of tin pot dictator" around Netanyahu's new coalition
The latest skirmish between the Israeli government and the judiciary seems to have ratcheted up to a dangerous level. The proposals to curtail the judicial system and for the Knesset to reverse judicial rulings have been met with horror by the opposition- and, understandably, jurists and others who have been tarred as the “liberal elite”.
But is it all posturing? Hot air? A new, hungry, politically ambitious government trying to draw its line in the sand? Perhaps, but I doubt it.
The proposals by Israeli Justice Minister Levin, now endorsed by PM Netanyahu, smack of Lord Acton’s saying about power, corruption its result, absolute power. The proposals are shoddy, underhand, outrageous, outlandish, bullish, pig-headed, and dangerous.
Words and phrases have become lazily solipsistic. Even the word “democracy” has become weaponised and subverted as a justification for the widest reforms Israel has ever seen.
And surely the Justice Minister is wrong when he bleats that members of the public look to the judicial system and find that their voices are not heard. That, he says, is not democracy. Isn’t that the Knesset’s job as a legislative body? The public doesn’t utilise the judicial system to have their voices heard. It is at the ballot box, however volatile or unpalatable the result of Israel’s political alliances.
But who am I to complain? I pay no taxes to the Israeli Tax Authority, nor do I have the obligation to send my children to the army to fight for their country of birth. The State of Israel owes me nothing.
The word “democracy” has become weaponised and subverted as a justification for the widest reforms Israel has ever seen.
And yet, when stepping onto Ben Gurion’s travelator, heading for that inevitably long queue at passport control, I feel a sense of belonging, of coming home in the Frostian sense, of home being the place where, when you go there, they have to let you in.
But now that too is in jeopardy thanks to these wide ranging proposals.
There is a whiff of the tin pot dictator around Mr Netanyahu and his coalition. It looks like he has surrounded himself with acolytes, and has shunned anyone who doesn’t toe the line- whether legislators, civil servants or, it appears, drivers.
The proposals are shoddy, underhand, outrageous, outlandish, bullish, pig-headed, and dangerous.
And accompanying this is a malignant simplicity of rejecting those with whom one disagrees. Whether dismissed as “fake news” or being anathema to the “democratic process”, it is seemingly impossible to disagree, chalk up losses and move on with the political debate rather than changing its parameters altogether.
As violent and disruptive as those scenes at Brazil’s Supreme Court were, what the Israeli Justice Minister is proposing is far more dangerous. He is attempting to dismantle the building blocks, the very jurisprudential fabric- gossamer in itself- of Israel to be a Jewish and democratic state.
Look at the UK and the Supreme Court’s slap down on the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s audacious ploy to prorogue parliament in 2019. It was chicanery of course but while he doubtless harrumphed at the result, Johnson realised there was nothing else he could do.
The process of governance cannot be at the behest of the executive. Even the most brash governmental legislator must know that for democracy to function, (which keeps being cited as a reason for this overhaul) there need to be jurisprudential checks and balances. And that means judgments which may thwart your own legislative purpose.
Look at the UK and the Supreme Court’s slap down on the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s audacious ploy to prorogue parliament in 2019. It was chicanery of course but while he doubtless harrumphed at the result, Johnson realised there was nothing else he could do.
If this were a piece of fiction and indeed, if it were a film, there would doubtless be an opening shot of Bibi- you can picture it clearly: blue suit, blue tie, white shirt, standing against an azure blue sky and an Israeli flag flying lazily nearby. And the soundtrack to that opening scene would have to be Frank Sinatra’s My Way.
Bibi sure is doing it his way. But it is not the right way. It is not the Jewish way. And it is not Israel’s way.
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