Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Israel Is Sitting on a Powder Keg



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a news conference in Jerusalem on Jan. 11. Photographer: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg
By

Gwen Ackerman
February 14, 2023
Bloomberg 

When President Isaac Herzog said Israel faces a “constitutional and social collapse,” he became the latest high-profile official to sound the alarm over the planned overhaul of the judicial system by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government.

The drive to shift power away from the country’s top court to parliament will make it easier for the ruling coalition to appoint judges and limit the judiciary’s authority to strike down laws.

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It has also brought tens of thousands of Israelis onto the streets. Scores of economists, business leaders, retired security chiefs and legal scholars have gone on record against the proposal that they say endangers the economy, relations with close allies and the future of Israel’s democratic system itself.

Even US President Joe Biden weighed in, telling a New York Times columnist that Israel’s democracy is based on institutional checks and balances, such as an independent judiciary.

Public discourse in Israel over the issue is growing uglier, at a time when spiraling violence with the Palestinians in both the West Bank and East Jerusalem is fanning domestic tensions and social anxiety.

“This powder keg is about to explode,” Herzog warned in an emotional televised appeal, urging the government to stop the legislative process and sit down to compromise with its opponents.

Herzog suggested a framework for the start of those talks, and while both opposition leaders and the government signaled they’re open to discussions, the justice minister said they wouldn’t halt advancement of the changes, which was one of the coalition’s main election planks.

Dialogue is the only way for Israel to emerge from “an emergency,” Herzog said. So far, few appear to be listening.

Protesters in front of the Israeli parliament yesterday.
Photographer: Amir Levy/Getty Images

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