3 reminders yesterday that Israeli democracy is on the line

1. “Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi on Sunday vowed to ignore an interim order issued by the High Court of Justice that ordered him to extend the tenure of a council member of the Kan Public Broadcast Corporation until the court issues a final decision on Karhi’s refusal until now to appoint new members to the council.

…

“Opposition Leader Yair Lapid condemned Karhi for his comments at the time, and said that if Karhi did not comply with the High Court order, there was no reason for anyone to comply with his instructions as minister.

2. “Hard-right lawmakers are advancing a far-reaching bill to allow police more discretion in probing suspected incitement, while chipping away at state attorneys’ oversight of investigations into such cases.

“The legislation could produce ‘hundreds, if not thousands of false investigations,’ according to Dr. Amir Fuchs, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute. ‘They won’t lead to prosecution, but there will be people getting arrested and investigated without it going through the State Attorney’s Office,’ he explained.”

3. “The IDF Military Police will also set up checkpoints at which they will be authorized to arrest draft dodgers in the West Bank and inside Israel proper…”

Here the shocking element to the story was not in the article itself, but in the response to this story from the Likud, as seen on X:

[Translation from the Hebrew]: “Drama: Likud Party against IDF enforcement decision to arrest evading Charedim: “I can guarantee that we, the Prime Minister and the Likud, will not allow this to happen under any circumstances,” Likud Spokesperson Guy Levy said in an interview…”

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So, let’s recap…

We have the Communications Minister – who has been diligently working to harm press freedom in Israel – saying he will ignore a ruling of the Supreme Court. And, as reported in the article:

“Israel has fallen 15 spots in Reporters Without Borders’ annual press freedom index since the government took power in late 2022. While launching heated attacks on many Israeli media outlets, the coalition has poured money into the pro-government Channel 14, nearly quadrupling its advertising spending there over the past two years…”

We have a bill that will allow Ben Gvir’s police to arrest people for what they say, without any longer needing legal experts to authorize this. (And we can safely assume that the definition of “incitement to terror” or “praising terrorists” will not include incitement to terror by Jewish extremists against Arabs, or praising them – which of course Ben Gvir and other members of his party have done on multiple occasions.)

And finally, and perhaps most shockingly, the ruling party has announced that it will not allow the IDF to follow the law and arrest draft dodgers. Yes, the party of the Prime Minister is now officially against the rule of law in Israel. This is where we are.

The coalition and its supporters continue to talk about “left and right” – with “left” now meaning anyone who opposes the government (including people with unequivocally right-wing politics.) But make no mistake, the next election will not be between right and left. It will be between two groups of parties with fundamentally different ideas of what Israel should be.

One group, currently in the opposition – whatever their disagreements – all believe that Israel should be a democratic state governed by the rule of law, which the Prime Minister and his ministers must also be subject to, with a free press and non-partisan public institutions.

Another group, the parties of the current coalition, believe in unrestricted power for the government, with no place for the rule of law; and with politicized public institutions and public servants loyal to the Prime Minister, not to the law.

The next election, whenever it comes, will be no less consequential for the future of the State of Israel than how the war in Gaza ends – and quite possibly more so.