For the first time, an Israeli government has refused to obey its own High Court. In its final weeks before an election, it's dismantling the very thing its defenders point to.
Check first what Apartheid is, then learn that Arab Israelis have equal rights to vote, participate in the enlistment of the IDF, enjoy the freedom to become judges in the Israeli courts, can get voted to become members of the Knesset (the Israeli government), are very involved in medicine, law, business, architecture, etc..
Was that true of the apartheid in South Africa, prior to Nelson Mandela changing those laws & the reality that existed for black South Africans for centuries?
There is a lot debate about much which is said here, but waving the flag of Democracy here is strange. The most undemocratic aspect of how is Israel is currently run is the unelected and self perpetuating court overturning the law passed by Democratically elected representatives of the people.
In a democracy, the courts strictly interpret the law and are appointed solely by elected representatives of the people.
You don't have to like, democracy, it certainly has its drawbacks, but you can't change the definition of what it is
The premise here is that an elected majority should face no limits. No democracy works that way. The US has a constitution and judicial review, Germany’s constitutional court strikes down laws regularly, even the UK has independent courts. Every democracy binds its majority.
Israel binds its majority less than almost any of them. No written constitution, no upper house, and its Basic Laws were meant to become a constitution and never did — most can be changed by the same simple majority that passes any other law. In that system the High Court is often the only check that exists.
A check matters most when a majority is rewriting the rules that decide the next election. That isn’t democracy in action.
The debate over how much power courts should have is real, and worth having. But “no limits on the majority” isn’t the democratic answer to it.
The definition of Democracy is that the majority has no limits. A SMART democracy creates a constitution that requires a super majority to override and other mutually agreed upon checks and balances. Unfortunately, as you point out, Israel is not a smart democracy. But the supreme court being the ultimate power, when that was never expressly agreed upon through the democratic process is neither smart nor democracy.
Sitting in Australia & watching the Israeli news every day, learning of IDF soldiers being killed in Lebanon &/or Gaza, then learning of what’s being hatched in the Knesset, all just to protect Bibi’s mistakes, his lack of conscience of what he has “cost” the people of Israel in October 7’s 1200 innocent women, children, men, the elderly & IDF soldiers all brutally massacred & 251 abducted to Gaza’s bowels.
No formal governmental commission into what went wrong on October 7 2023?
How can Bibi live with himself, never once meeting with the parents mourning their sons & daughters who attended the Nova Festival?
How can Bibi sell his soul by evading his responsibility as PM?
G-d forbid that Netanyahu will do even more harm to what Israel represents :
the palpable conscience of the Jewish people, not just of Israel, but all the Jews of the Diaspora, as well.
Israel is not a democracy and has never been a democracy
Israel is not a democracy and never has been a democracy, an apartheid state is not and never will be a democracy
Check first what Apartheid is, then learn that Arab Israelis have equal rights to vote, participate in the enlistment of the IDF, enjoy the freedom to become judges in the Israeli courts, can get voted to become members of the Knesset (the Israeli government), are very involved in medicine, law, business, architecture, etc..
Was that true of the apartheid in South Africa, prior to Nelson Mandela changing those laws & the reality that existed for black South Africans for centuries?
There is a lot debate about much which is said here, but waving the flag of Democracy here is strange. The most undemocratic aspect of how is Israel is currently run is the unelected and self perpetuating court overturning the law passed by Democratically elected representatives of the people.
In a democracy, the courts strictly interpret the law and are appointed solely by elected representatives of the people.
You don't have to like, democracy, it certainly has its drawbacks, but you can't change the definition of what it is
The premise here is that an elected majority should face no limits. No democracy works that way. The US has a constitution and judicial review, Germany’s constitutional court strikes down laws regularly, even the UK has independent courts. Every democracy binds its majority.
Israel binds its majority less than almost any of them. No written constitution, no upper house, and its Basic Laws were meant to become a constitution and never did — most can be changed by the same simple majority that passes any other law. In that system the High Court is often the only check that exists.
A check matters most when a majority is rewriting the rules that decide the next election. That isn’t democracy in action.
The debate over how much power courts should have is real, and worth having. But “no limits on the majority” isn’t the democratic answer to it.
The definition of Democracy is that the majority has no limits. A SMART democracy creates a constitution that requires a super majority to override and other mutually agreed upon checks and balances. Unfortunately, as you point out, Israel is not a smart democracy. But the supreme court being the ultimate power, when that was never expressly agreed upon through the democratic process is neither smart nor democracy.
Sitting in Australia & watching the Israeli news every day, learning of IDF soldiers being killed in Lebanon &/or Gaza, then learning of what’s being hatched in the Knesset, all just to protect Bibi’s mistakes, his lack of conscience of what he has “cost” the people of Israel in October 7’s 1200 innocent women, children, men, the elderly & IDF soldiers all brutally massacred & 251 abducted to Gaza’s bowels.
No formal governmental commission into what went wrong on October 7 2023?
How can Bibi live with himself, never once meeting with the parents mourning their sons & daughters who attended the Nova Festival?
How can Bibi sell his soul by evading his responsibility as PM?
G-d forbid that Netanyahu will do even more harm to what Israel represents :
the palpable conscience of the Jewish people, not just of Israel, but all the Jews of the Diaspora, as well.