The Israeli elections took place three weeks ago and it was expected that Netanyahu would be able to form a new government quickly, with the rather comfortable majority he has in the Knesset. But it turns out that his “partners”, have come up with a series of demands that must have stunned even Netanyahu.
From having a convicted criminal in the Finance ministry to an extremist racist as Defense minister and an even more extreme fascist in the Internal Security ministry, Netanyahu will have a hard time giving in to these absurd demands and an even harder time not giving in to them. And these are only some of the personal “prizes” his religious partners demand. Other ultimatums have been aired with respect to religious issues, and the Kashrut reform, put in place last November is likely to be made undone, the rights of gay and Lesbian people will be severely curtailed, the control over religious issues will be fully returned to the Chief Rabbinate and women will feel the powerful Orthodox hand in their neck to “put them in their place”.
Even if not all demands will be fully met, Israel will change and become more religious and “Jewish”. While it will not (yet) become a “Halacha State” as the head of the Religious Zionist party, Bezalel Smotrich is dreaming of, the clamp of religion will definitely be tightened.
But one demand by the religious parties, and fully supported by Netanyahu and his Likud party, stands out as the single major change that is likely to be implemented that will change Israel democracy and in fact will more or less destroy the (already) very weak democracy that Israel is today.
As part of what is summarized as “judicial Reform” the new coalition will have as one of its first tasks to prepare and pass what has become known as the “Override Law”. In short, it would give the Knesset the power to override decisions of the Supreme Court with respect to legislation. This would mean that the Knesset will be able enact a new law, even as it was struck down by the Supreme Court as “unconstitutional”. The discussion between the potential coalition partners, is focused mainly if the Override law will require a 61 vote majority or a larger one. But the principle of the law has in fact already been agreed upon.
Democracy is built on the principle of “Trias Politica”, the “Separation of Powers” which was developed by the 18th century French philosopher and politician Baron de Montesquieu. The principle states that the political authority of a state should be divided into three branches, a legislative branch, an executive branch and a judicial one.
- The legislative branch is responsible for developing and enacting the rules and laws that the country should be governed by and allocate the money for this.
- The executive branch is responsible for implementing the rules and laws devised by the legislative branch
- The judicial branch is responsible to ascertain that the executive branch acts within the limits of the laws developed by the legislative branch while making sure at the same time that those laws are not in conflict with existing legislation or with basic rights.
Taking away the power of the Supreme Court to safeguard the “Legality” of new legislation (with respect to existing laws and Human Rights, cripples the democratic process in a way that in fact creates a dictatorship, with the Knesset as the dictator, who will be able to do what he thinks needs to be done. The result will be legislation that forces religious matters onto the secular public; laws that will curtail the rights of minority groups; and a free hand of the right-wing government to do what they want in the Occupied Territories without respect or adherence to basic Human Rights laws that Israel is committed to on an International level.
The diminishing of the power of the Judiciary branch of democracy will disrupt the equilibrium that de Montesquieu foresaw as a basic necessity for the system to work, will result in full power of the legislative and executive branches and proper government will be a thing of the past.
Israel has often been called by its politicians a “Jewish and Democratic” State. This oxymoron has always been a somewhat pathetic attempt by politics to justify anti-democratic legislation, with an Override Law in place, even the most naive (self-deluding) Israeli will have to admit, and will experience very soon, that the Democratic has fallen off the boards and we are left with a “Jewish” State only. But apparently there are others that wanted for just that to happen.
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