Democracy under siege

It was with disbelief that many of us interested in international affairs looked on last week at events in Israel – described as the only true democracy in the Middle East. Its prime minister succeeded in taking a bold step towards dismantling that most lauded and hard won democracy by weakening the independence of the country's judicial system in making its judges more subject to political control. The answer to the question: Why would he do that? is: Self-interest. Pure and simple. Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting to avoid being found guilty in court and made to pay the penalty for his alleged corruption. It is akin to Donald Trump’s presidential stacking of the Supreme Court with conservative justices to shape public policy and hopefully do his bidding when his three dozen-plus felonies come to court. Three more were added last Thursday.

Both men have been leading their countries into very dangerous waters, shaping democracy, not for ideological reasons but to protect themselves from justice. Donald Trump is the first US president to be indicted, and the string of felonies is so long, old and varied that a federal case could take well over another year, experts say, and reach trial after the November 2024 presidential election. Trump knows that according to the US constitution he cannot be stopped from running, even with his impeachments and indictments hanging over him. If he won the election he would be free to return to the White House and could claim, as he did before, that sitting presidents are immune to federal prosecution and invoke executive privilege to hide information and thwart the legal process with regard to his case. His legal team is fighting hard to ensure there is no pre-election criminal trial by using an array of delay tactics that could well succeed.

As for Netanyahu, he is ensuring the courts have little power to act against him in his ongoing corruption trial. He was tried and was desperate to avoid possible conviction before the last general election took place, since Israeli law banned anyone serving a jail sentence in the previous six years from ministerial office. He succeeded in narrowly winning last November’s elections and forming a coalition of minority far right parties. Now he is on step two of saving Bibi. Recently, the government passed a law blocking the ability of the judiciary to declare the prime minister unfit for office, and the law passed last week further entrenches him ­– the government will now be able to hire and fire public servants without the intervention of the courts, which have had a lot of power in Israel. It also gets the decisive vote over some of the justices appointed to the Supreme Court. Israel has no constitution and a unicameral legislature, so the politicisation of the judicial system and the removal of the checks and balances needed to reign in the power of the Executive is very alarming to citizens. Opponents argue that now politicians could overturn a Supreme Court ruling by the narrowest possible majority, easily bring about fundamental changes in the law and put policing in political hands. It could, indeed, be the thin edge of the wedge since the coalition also wants to pass laws that prioritise religion and nationalism, policies of the Israeli far right.

The only edifying aspect of these developments to onlookers was the Israeli people’s widely-reported extraordinary, unprecedented display of defiance, demonstrating for weeks, camping out at nights in front of the parliament and enduring violence by the police to prevent what they rightly regard as creeping authoritarianism — the only government minister who publicly opposed the judicial overhaul was sacked. A national strike grounded departing flights, while hospitals cancelled non-urgent treatments, universities cancelled lectures and some government offices were forced to close including Israel's embassies abroad Even military reservists have not been showing up since the law was passed.

In TT we have had controversial state matters, such as the procurement legislation and its amendments, the unseemly goings-on with the THA, local government reform and the imminent elections, all of which deserve our concern, but for the main part we have not engaged with them. Maybe we do not fully understand the import of these matters or see how they can aid or hinder our democracy. Although we do not seem to trust our politicians we do give them a lot of power by not insisting on their accountability. Maybe we know more about disappointment than the French people who went home after months of rioting in Paris when President Macron ignored their protests over raising the retirement age, and the Israeli people in Tel Aviv who now must live with the knowledge that they have been forced to accept what they consider unacceptable.

Nevertheless, for democracy to succeed, citizens must be active and alert. The Israelis, particularly, should always remember that Hitler was appointed as chancellor of Germany after the Nazi Party won a series of democratic elections. Once in power he became a dictator, destroying democratic institutions and prepping Germany for conquering most of Europe and domination by his glorified “Aryan race.” We all know where that led.