‘A tyranny of the majority threatens in Israel’ Translation, NewsHour NOS, by Cora Westerink (1965)
A “biblical disaster”. Participants in protests in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv this weekend left no doubt about their views on the new government.
The protesters fear that reforms the cabinet wants to implement will damage democracy and make it easier for the ultra-right-wing government to implement controversial plans. How justified are these concerns?
Supreme Court sidelined
The reform receiving the most criticism is about the rule of law. A majority in parliament should soon be able to pass laws that the Supreme Court rules violate the constitution. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the reform is necessary “to restore the balance of powers”. The court has allegedly interfered too much in decision-making in recent decades, according to some Israelis.
But experts are sceptical. The reform allows “a tyranny of the majority”, says Erwin van Veen, Middle East researcher at Clingendael Institute. “If the Supreme Court objects to a law or decision, parliament can say: we’ll just do it anyway. Then the legislature sits in the chair of the judiciary.”
Worrying, also thinks Dutch-Israeli anthropologist (UvA) Erella Grassiani. “Half plus one can soon make decisions that go directly against the fundamental rights of minorities.”
It is not far-fetched to think that is what the new government intends. Although Netanyahu says his government is there for all citizens, Palestinians and lhbtis in particular often have to bear the brunt of his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners. “Lhbtis had long had support from the more liberal parts of politics, but they now barely have a voice in the government,” Grassiani says.
And Israel “was already a country that treats its minorities very badly”, says Van Veen. “In 2018, the government declared Israel a Jewish nation-state, with Arabs as second-class citizens. In addition, expropriation in the Palestinian territories has so far taken place incrementally, but some parties in the new government want more speed and will call for larger-scale annexation.”
‘Netherlands never did anything against abuses’
Grassiani, who co-founded a platform of Israelis in the Netherlands opposed to the occupation of Palestinian territories, sees it with sorrow. “For the average Palestinian in Israel, the current government mainly means yet another step in the wrong direction, the next stop of a corridor that has been going on for decades.”
Palestinian territories
Israel captured the West Bank in 1967 along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, areas where Palestinians want to establish a future state. Israel has built dozens of Jewish settlements in those areas where some 600,000 Israelis live alongside 3 million Palestinians. Under international law, the settlements are illegal.
The two-state solution, with Israel and the Palestinians living side by side in their own states in peace, seems further away than ever. Van Veen thinks other countries should recognise this reality and act accordingly. “The Netherlands is still focusing on a two-state solution, but Israel put that idea aside much earlier. Israel has hardly given the experiment of letting Palestine prove itself as a functioning state a serious chance.”
“Israel has a long track record of violations of international law, the rights of Israeli Arabs and the rights of Palestinians. But the Netherlands rarely, if ever, attaches concrete consequences to these.”
Again, he and Grassiani expect the Netherlands not to take a stand, “even in the case of more abuses”. The Netherlands is not a big player internationally, but minorities in Israel need not expect other countries to provide counter-pressure either, Grassiani says.
Van Veen agrees. “The United States is a factor, but it will not turn against Israel. President Joe Biden is strongly pro-Israel. The conflict is considered a political minefield in the US where, as president, you have nothing to gain by taking a hard line.”
‘Oppression no objection’
One remaining question is how Israel’s Muslim neighbours will act. In fact, with a number of countries in the region, Israel has had better (trade) relations again in recent years. Van Veen expects this normalisation to come to a halt “if the Israeli government makes life even more difficult for the Palestinians than it already is”.
Grassiani thinks slightly differently. “Relations were built at a time when there was also strong oppression of Palestinians. That was not an objection then and will not be now.”
Click the link to the genealogy of Chaim Potok
