Israel Crisis 2023 | Largest Protests in History

 In Israel, thousands of people are protesting on the streets. It is said to be the largest protest in Israel’s history.

 People are worried that the democracy in the country is being destroyed. Because their government tried to end the freedom of the judiciary. The government tried to bring in amendments that would make the Supreme Court the government’s puppet. 

What’s happening exactly? Why should we Indians care about Israel’s internal matters? 

Come, let us understand it in this article. News: "The roaring turmoil in Israel, fiery protests erupting in the streets tonight." "In unprecedented events, the country's biggest trade union called a strike." "The country's political turmoil rapidly deepening." "Those protesting say that this is escalating into an existential battle for Israel's democratic soul." 

The story of the judicial reforms began officially on 11th january 2023. When Israel’s Justice Minister Yariv Levin publish draft bills limiting the powers of the Supreme Court. The Justice Minister and the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Belong to the same political party. The Likud party. And their political symbol is this. 

Here, we need to understand their political system first.

 The democratic setup of Israel.

 In India, there are two houses of Parliament. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The Lower House and the Upper House. Since there are two houses, in India, it is known as a Bicameral structure. 

1. But in Israel, there’s only one house of Parliament. Known as a Unicameral structure. And the Parliament is called the Knesset. Knesset is the only Legislative Authority in the country And there are 120 members in total elected by the citizens. Similar to how we elect the members of the Lok Sabha. We call them MP - Members of Parliament. There they use the term MK - Member of Knesset. The rest of the funda is quite simple, The party with a clear majority in this parliament, Will form the government. 61 seats out of 120. Whichever party wins this, forms the government. But till now, in the history of their country, Never has a single party crossed the mark of 61 seats. Collation governments had to be formed throughout their history. The downfall of this system is that The separation of power between the legislature and executive that we see, Is absent here to a large extent. In school, you studied the four pillars of democracy. 

Legislature, Executive, Judiciary, and Media. It is crucial that these four are independent of each other. In Israel, there’s little to no separation between the legislature and the executive. 

The second uncommon thing about Israel is that they do not have a written constitution. That’s right, instead, in Israel, there is the concept of Basic Laws. There are 13 such Basic Laws on their government’s  website. These laws define the foundation of an Israeli    Constitution. Historically, the idea was that the Basic laws would be drafted first Thereafter a constitution based on it. But the Constitution was never drafted. 

Basically, you can think of these 13 Basic Laws as the current constitutional framework of Israel. Currently, their Supreme Court has the power of Judicial Review. If their government or the Parliament makes a law which contravenes or contradicts the Basic Laws, Their Supreme Court has the power to repeal that law. Broadly speaking, in Israel, The role of the Judiciary becomes even more important due to these two reasons.

 First, the weaker separation of powers between the other pillars of democracy, And second, the absence of a Constitution. But it doesn’t mean that the Supreme Court can reverse any random government decision. If the Supreme Court makes a decision reversing government’s actions, It will need to prove that the action contradicts the Basic Laws of Israel. For example, if the government passes a law that is against the LGBT+ community. Suppose they criminalise trans people. The Supreme Court can strike it down stating that The new law contradicts Israel’s Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty. The new amendments that the Israeli government tried to bring in, Was named Judicial Overhaul.

 What were the amendments exactly? 

Let's check them out one by one. 

The first, most important and the most problematic amendment, Giving the parliament the authority to veto Supreme Court’s decision. Any decision by the Supreme Court could be vetoed If the majority of MKs in the Knesset, As in, 61 or more MKs, Vote against it. 

The second, amendment sought that with a simple majority in Parliament, the government be given the authority of appointing the President and Vice President of the Supreme Court. Additionally, the responsibility of appointing the judges in the court would rest with the government. And they could appoint someone who didn’t even serve as a judge in the lower courts. As per the present rule, the judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the Judicial Election Committee. There are 9 members in this committee. But as per the new amendment, There would be 11 members in the committee going forwards. Who will be these 11 members? 3 of them would be governmental ministers. Including the Justice Minister. 3 would be MKs, Of which 2 would be appointed by the government There would be 2 public representatives appointed by the Justice Minister. So 3+2+2, this amounts to 7 people directly or indirectly appointed by the government. Of the remaining members in the committee 3 would be high court judges, 1 of whom would be the Chief Justice, And 1 MK, who might not be from the ruling party. Clearly, the majority of the committee would be appointed by the government. So the government will have total control over the judges who would be appointed to the Supreme Court And those who would be rejected. Friends, you can already see how the judiciary is being oppressed. But there’s more. 

Third, the right with the Supreme Court to reverse government's decisions that go against the Basic Laws, To strike down the laws made by the government, Would be valid only when all 15 judges of the Supreme Court are present and in agreement. So if even 1 of the 15 judges is ill, And they couldn’t come to the hearing in court, It would not be possible to make a valid decision. So even after this, the Knesset would have the right To overturn the Supreme Court’s decision, By passing a new law. Thus, the Supreme Court could strike down a new law as per the Basic Laws When all 15 judges are present and in favour. And even if they could do that, The Knesset could pass the law once again, And the Supreme Court would not be able to do anything. Friends, this is why Former Deputy President of Israel’s Supreme Court Elyakim Rubinstein said that If the reforms are passed, their country would become a democratic dictatorship. And only one pillar of democracy would remain standing in Israel. The government, elected by the citizens. The former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak claims that These news reforms are Poison Pills. If these are passed, the citizens would have no defence to protect their rights And the country of Israel will be doomed. If you are wondering why the Israeli government would want to do this, You can see an interesting chronology that you need to understand. 

In 1993, Israel’s Supreme Court passed a famous verdict In which the then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was forced To fire the Interior Minister Aryeh Deri. Aryeh Deri came from an extreme right-wing Shas party. He was accused of bribery and corruption. Eventually, he was punished with 3 years’ imprisonment in 2000, But he was released 22 months later due to good behaviour. He reentered politics in 2011, And in January 2022, he was found guilty of tax evasion. Even so, he was nominated for the November 2022 elections by the Shas party, And this extreme right-wing party won 11 seats And in the new government, he became the Interior Minister as well as the Health Minister. Do you recall that I told you this story began on 11th January 2023? When this draft was published. A week before that, a press conference was held In which Levin gave indications that something major was about to happen. That was on Wednesday evening. A few hours after that, on Thursday morning, The Supreme Court was going to hear 3 petitions. One of these petitions was for the cancellation of Aryeh Deri’s appointment. Moving on, on 18th January 2023, the Supreme Court arrives at this decision, Aryeh Deri’s appointment was cancelled Since he was found guilty of corruption. But experts claim that the government was threatened. The government is wary that the other ministers who have been found to be corrupt Might be removed from their appointed posts by the Supreme Court, And it might cause the fall of the government. It was important to protect the government’s power. And thus it was important to take away Supreme Court’s power. Anyhow friends, Israel’s current government Is believed to be the most extreme right-wing government in Israel’s history. It’s not that there have been no right-wing governments before There have been many right-wing governments in power, But this current government holding power Is the most extreme that there has been. As per the 2018 data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, 45% of Jewish Israelis consider themselves to be secular. 25% consider themselves traditional, And 16% categorise themselves as religious or very religious, And 14% call themselves ultra-orthodox. That’s extremely religious. The current collation government has 64 out of the 120 seats But the parties forming this collation Are the extreme right-wing governments. In this new government, the National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, Worked in the youth wing of a party That was declared a terrorist organisation by Israel and America. The Kach party. They talked about driving out the Arabs from Israel. Bezalel Smotrich, their Finance Minister Calls himself a Homophobe. And had once organised a protest against a gay parade. I’ve already told you about Aryeh Deri, and the numerous accusations on him, is the Health and Interior Minister. Friends, these are just a few examples. This is why their opposition leader and former Prime Minister, Yair Lapid Called this new government a Gang of Criminals. But let’s talk about the protest. As soon as the news reached the people They took to the streets to protest. The trade unions in Israel call for a general strike. Israel Medical Association calls for a full strike in the healthcare system. Hospitals shut down. Airports were shut down as people refused to work. Israeli embassies all across the world participated in this strike. Including the Israeli embassy in India. Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, Does not hold much power The President holds a ceremonial position. Similar to how the President’s position in India is largely ceremonial. He tweeted, “For the sake of the unity of the people of Israel, for the sake of responsibility, I call on you to stop the legislative process immediately". Many fighter pilots, military doctors, and soldiers, Left their training to participate in the protest. Israel’s national airline had difficulty in finding pilots. Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife wanted to fly to Italy on an official visit, But hardly any pilots were willing. When they reached Italy finally, The Jewish translator refused to translate for the Prime Minister. Friends, it is interesting to note that So many people working in various fields, jobs and professions, Took part in the protest in their capacities. A pilot refusing to fly. A translator refusing to translate, A soldier in the army leaving his training. On an individual scale, it doesn’t have much impact. But if everyone came together and did this, Can you imagine the huge impact it would have on the country? On 26th March, the protest reached its peak, When Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, Told Prime Minister Netanyahu To give in to the citizen’s demands, In response, the Prime Minister fired the Defence Minister. The protest march following this incident, Was the largest ever in the country’s history. Nearly 650,000 people were on the streets. The total population of Israel is around 9 million. So nearly 7% of the country’s population Imagine them protesting together. Thousands of people came to protest outside the Prime Minister’s residence. Prime Minister Netanyahu had to flee his residence. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s son claims that these protests are being funded by America. That these are foreign-funded protests. Recall the farmer protests in India, That was claimed to be a conspiracy of the ‘toolkit gang’. Foreign agents attacking India. The same arguments are used in Iran by the Iranian government. Claiming that the protests in Iran are a foreign-funded conspiracy. They are trying to provoke Iranian women. Eventually, due to the unabating public pressure Prime Minister Netanyahu said that the amendments would be put on hold for now. After this, the protests calmed down a bit But many protestors are still on the streets Demanding full extinguishment of the new amendments. Rather than pausing now, Only to bring them back a year later. Previous Netanyahu governments have tried to enact laws that weaken Israel's democracy. 

In 2018, they tried to amend the Basic Laws, Whereby, the non-Jews would be second-class citizens basically. Similar to the efforts when NRC was brought in India. There were large-scale protests against that bill too, But this protest is much bigger. At the beginning of this, I had told you That the Article is quite relevant for Indians as well. Why though? Because the Indian government used similar ways To establish control over the Supreme Court. These efforts began way back in 2014. A few months after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister The government tried to amend the Constitution So that the executive could get the control of appointing judges in the Judiciary. The government tried to National Judicial Appointment Commission. A commission for appointing judges. In 2014, was passed by both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. According to it, there will be 6 members form a  in the commission. The Chief Justice of India, 2 seniormost Supreme Court judges, Union Minister of Law and Justice, And 2 other eminent persons from the civil society appointed by another committee, Formed of the Chief Justice of India, the Prime Minister, and the leader of the opposition. This system isn’t as extreme as the one proposed in Israel. There they clearly gave control over 7 members to the government So that they could easily control the committee. India’s NJAC committee sounds reasonably balanced But the point to be noted is that Before this, the government had no control over the appointment of judges. But enacting this would give substantial control to the government. This is why, in October 2015, the Supreme Court struck down this law. So thankfully, in the system used in India for appointing Supreme Court judges, There is almost no role for the government. We use the Collegium system. In which, the Chief Justice of India along with 4 seniormost Supreme Court judges, Sit together and recommend the judges to be appointed. The government may raise objections In case of an appointment of any judge which seems erroneous, By raising the objection, the government can ask for clarification from the Supreme Court, But at the end of the day, If the collegium is adamant about the appointment, The government would have to concede. But there’s one problem with this. There is no fixed time limit for the government. This loophole is often used nowadays by the government For delaying the appointment of judges. In January 2023, our Supreme Court reported that Our government reject 5 nominations for appointing judges by collegium’s decision, And the Supreme Court publicly revealed why the judges were rejected by the government. One of the reasons why the government did not like the candidate Was that he was often criticising the government. So it seems like even though the existing system doesn’t allow the government to control the Supreme Court, But the government is trying its best to find a way to establish influence, Often there are delay in appointing judges because of this, Because the final decision of appointing judges rests with the government, And the government keeps this on hold And doesn’t make decisions on time. I’m not saying that there are no drawbacks to the Collegium system. There are. But as the Chief Justice of India says, "It was devised for the simple reason, that the independence of the Judiciary is a cardinal value. And you have to insulate the Judiciary from outside influences if the judiciary has to, truly, be independent." If we want to maintain the independence of the judiciary, We need to keep the influence of the government to a minimum. The debate was reignited in November 2022 When our Vice President and Law Minister Kiren Rijiju Criticised the Supreme Court saying that The delays in our court system is caused by the collegium system. Over the last some years, in multiple countries, Such authoritarian political movements are rising their heads. Governments are trying to weaken democratic structures. The list of these countries is quite long. There were such efforts in Hungary and Brazil. The Philippines, Türkiye, In America, the government try to establish control over the Judiciary under Trump’s governance. And Israel is the latest example. The good news is that in these countries There are many people who are willing to fight for democracy in their country. They take part in protests to defend their country’s democracy. What do you think? Comment below to let me know.