Largest Protests in History - Israel Crisis January to October 2023.

 Large-scale protests took place across Israel

From January to October 2023, large-scale protests took place across Israel in response to the government's push for a wide-ranging judicial reform. 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 Blog.

The story of the judicial reforms began officially on 11th January 2023. When Israel’s Justice Minister Yariv Levin published draft bills limiting the powers of the Supreme Court. The Justice Minister and 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.

But in Israel, there’s only one house of Parliament. Known as a Unicameral structure. The Parliament is called the Knesset. The Knesset is the only Legislative Authority in the country There are 120 members in total elected by the citizens.

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.

1. Legislature,

2. Executive,

3. Judiciary,

4. 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 the 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 that 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 has become 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 the 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 criminalize 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, Were named Judicial Overhaul. What were the amendments exactly?

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

The second amendment sought that with a simple majority in Parliament, the government be given the authority to appoint 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.

However, as per the new amendment, There would be 11 members in the committee going forward. 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 of 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 of the Supreme Court to reverse the 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 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 favor. 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 the 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 is 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 defense 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 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 behavior. He reentered politics in 2011, In January 2022, he was found guilty of tax evasion. Even so, he was nominated for the November 2022 elections by the Shas party, 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 arrived at this decision, Aryeh Deri’s appointment was canceled Since he was found guilty of corruption. However, 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. Thus it was important to take away the 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 holds 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, 16% categorize themselves as religious or very religious, And 14% call themselves ultra-orthodox. That’s extremely religious.

The current coalition government has 64 out of the 120 seats But the parties forming this coalition 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 organization 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 organized a protest against a gay parade. I’ve already told you about  Aryeh Deri, and the numerous accusations against 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.

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 defense 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 to India. There were large-scale protests against that bill too, But this protest is much bigger.

Over the last few years, in multiple countries, Such authoritarian political movements are raising 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 tried 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?

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