Melanie Phillips
Substack, Mar. 10, 2023
“… the problem is the system itself, which forces an ultimate zero-sum choice between two potential evils: overreach by judicial oligarchs or overreach by political oligarchs.”
Democracy is currently being undermined in many parts of the free world. In Israel, the threat is deeper and wider than either side will admit, given the near-civil war that has erupted over the government’s proposed judicial reforms.
Enormous demonstrations against them have been taking place in Tel Aviv and elsewhere over the past nine weeks.
The protesters say they are fighting to defend Israel’s democracy. Yet how can this be if their declared aim is to bring down the democratically elected government?
Democracy involves the rule of law rooted in public consent, achieved through the election of political representatives who pass those laws. This is safeguarded by free and fair elections, independent judges, police and prosecutors and a free press.
The problem is that, for the past 30 years, the Israeli courts have been undermining democracy through behaviour that owes more to the judges’ political and ideological views than to law. After Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister once again last December, people petitioned the Supreme Court to force him to step down on the grounds that he was under indictment on corruption charges.
Although there is no law preventing a prime minister from serving while under indictment, the court didn’t throw out this petition for having no legal standing. Instead, it heard the case; and although it declined to bar Netanyahu, it said it could have done so — thus indicating that it deemed it within its power to nullify an election result. … [To read the full article, click here]
