Israel sojourn provides a lesson in democracy

By Rachel Zuckerman | Manor Ink

Summer, the season when we can take a break and relax. People go places to see family, or simply have a getaway. I went to see family in Israel, my second favorite place on Earth. I had a good time, but when I thought Israel was the same old Israel, I was shocked to hear what was happening there. So, let me tell you about what hides beneath its beauty.

When I was in Israel, my aunt asked me if I wanted to come to a protest. I thought that it might be violent, like the ones that you see on the news. Turns out I was wrong. The protest was a small, quiet event with many demonstrators. I learned that many similar events were taking place throughout the country. When I learned the reason these protests were happening, I was shocked.

Many Israelis were protesting because of what the current government is doing. To understand this better, I interviewed my uncle, an Israeli citizen, and he explained that the government is trying to change the democratic process by diminishing the ability of the country’s Supreme Court to override laws the government passes. This means the executive branch will have much greater power to decide the law, with no other branch being able to counteract them.

In Israeli politics, there’s no written constitution. This means the government is not obligated to a set of written rules and instead allows lawmakers flexibility and creativity in how they make their decisions. One of the biggest decisions in government is how Supreme Court judges are nominated. If the judges are nominated only by the ruling party, that means that those judges might only be loyal to those people who put them in power and might be disinclined to overrule laws the ruling party passes.

My uncle further explained how the Supreme Court currently works. He gave the example of the government’s decision not to build bomb shelters in the Gaza Strip (which is basically a place where there’s war), just because of the expense. The people in or near the Gaza Strip protested to the Supreme Court, and the court ordered the government to build the shelters.

Now, he said, the government is trying to prevent the Supreme Court from having the power to make that sort of ruling. The executive branch is trying to take away the court’s ability to determine right from wrong and issue a reasonable ruling – basically, getting rid of the word “reason” from the judicial process.

“Let’s say someone who is powerful has a son who goes to jail, but then they put him up for chief of police. Unfair, right?” said my uncle. “Our government passed a law that the word ‘reasonable’ cannot be used in judging such an action. Essentially, the government is trying to get rid of the Supreme Court so they can do whatever they want.” That’s what the protest is about, he said, because if they succeed, there will be no more democracy in Israel.

Many Israelis are saying that if the result is an abandonment of democracy, then they won’t go to war to defend the country, won’t pay taxes, and will even look for different places to live. This conflict between the government and the Supreme Court, the protests and the people resisting – what will be the outcome? Will Israel thrive like it did in the past when I visited it, or will it turn to ruins?