Ever since the inauguration of the new Israeli government, and its speedy decisions to move forward the judicial reform that now-Justice minister Yariv Levin has been demanding for years, demonstrations against the government plans are being held almost on a daily basis, culminating in a weekly mass protest in Tel Aviv, bringing hundreds of thousands of Israelis to squares, road crossings, bridges etc. to express their worry and anger about the government plans.
The “judicial reform” as it is called by Levin, has many aspects but two proposals are the most worrisome of all. One is the changes in the committee that chooses Supreme Court judges, which would give politicians, and specifically the ruling coalition, almost complete control over who would be nominated to the Supreme Court. The second dangerous proposal is the so-called “Override” law. The law would enable the Knesset to ignore the fact that a law is disapproved by the Supreme Court and enact it despite the court ruling. This would allow the passing of laws against minorities, but also, like is currently being attempted, to ignore the court’s ruling against the nomination of a criminal as Minister.
The demonstrations, and the never-ending stream of warnings on the consequences of the “Reform”, from financial experts, politicians, lawyers, Hi-Tech, academics and who not, are encouraging even though it does not appear to have any effect on Netanyahu or his cabinet members and coalition partners.
So how did it come to pass that such a broad coalition, with a majority in the Knesset, appears to be so “united” in its desire to “reform” the judicial system? The coalition partners may indeed be united in their desire to change the judicial system and do almost unrepairable damage to Israeli Democracy, but their goals after this reform has been accomplished are very different. The Override Law is generally considered the immediate need and that is why it is also pushed very hard. So what will happen after it is passed?
The coalition is in effect built on two very different groups of political parties. On one side are the ultra-right, fascist parties that have Jewish Supremacy high in their banner, and their main goals lie in moving forward with the annexation of the Occupied Territories, the curtailing of human right as far as Palestinians are concerned, and while they are at it, making life of Palestinian Israelis hell.
On the other side, the religious parties take up a crucial part of the coalition, with sufficient votes to break up the government if their demands are not met. And they need the Override law in order to be able to pass new laws bringing Israel huge steps closer to the Halachi State that they are striving for, starting with (more) restrictions on Public Transport on Saturdays, shop closures, stricter Kosher rules, increasing power of the Chief Rabbis and the Rabbinical courts etc.
In the middle, the Likud party, Netanyahu’s party and the largest faction in the coalition, found itself literally between a rock and a hard place, but the demands of the other factions had to be met in order to assure the formation of the government in the first place.
In other words, the “Judicial” Reform is necessary to move forward as quickly as possible and transform Israel, from the relatively advanced Democracy (at least if you are Jewish) to the Fascist Apartheid State that the right wing of the coalition as in mind while at the same time making this a real Halachic State that the religious parties dream about.
Are the demonstrators capable of stopping this horrific future? At this point, there are no indications that they will and it appears that a lot will depend on the actions of the Supreme Court as a result of the unbridled attack on their status but the demonstrators may not realize it, but what is happening at the moment is nothing new. Not the transformation into an Apartheid State and not the control over our daily lives by religion. It is only happening at a much higher pace and without the nuances that often have hidden the real intend of laws and actions by Israeli governments in the past.
And this may be the fatal mistake that Netanyahu and his cohorts made. The speed and the bluntness of their actions touched a raw nerve with many Israelis. A nerve that was protected against more subtle actions in the past, which had the same intend: Jewish Supremacy in the Land of Israel (all of it) and Jewish religion in control of our lives. Had Netanyahu moved in a more calculated manner and controlled his coalition partners better, most Israelis would have accepted it and argued like Netanyahu and his cronies have argued for the past twenty years: Israel is ours and we should respect the religious and the religion, after all, we are all Jews.
When Israelis feel under attack, or in trouble, they like to sing a (very beautiful) song: “I have no Other Country, even though the earth is burning below my feet”. In this case though, the fire was lit by (Jewish) Israelis, will be suffered by (Jewish) Israelis and the results accepted by (Jewish) Israelis.
In the End: We are all Jews.
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