Who Rules the Roost?

The Israeli government’s proposal to reform its judiciary drew wide-ranging international criticism earlier this year.

In an article titled “Israel unveils controversial plans to overhaul judicial system,” The Guardian warned the proposed changes to Israel’s Supreme Court would weaken the country’s democracy.

An NPR headline read, “Israel’s far-right government wants the power to override its Supreme Court,” suggesting the most right-wing government in Israel’s history wishes to fundamentally alter Israel’s system of government by undermining judicial powers.

The Los Angeles Times asked, “Is Israel’s new government destroying democracy?” insinuating that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is acting in bad faith, eroding the democratic foundations of the country.

The foreign press’s negative headlines imply Israel’s longest-serving prime minister has gone off the rails with the permission of his coalition.

Is Netanyahu destroying Israel’s democratic foundations, or is he attempting to strengthen them?

A democracy is governed by the people. The power to rule is vested in the citizens’ right to vote, to have their voices represented in every branch of the government.

For instance, when a U.S. Supreme Court seat becomes vacant, American citizens have an indirect say in the process of appointing a new justice. The sitting president nominates an individual for a vacancy on the Court; then the Senate votes to confirm the nominee through a simple majority. Citizens’ voices are heard through the executive and legislative branches of the federal government for which they voted.

If Netanyahu’s judiciary reforms are meant to damage Israel’s democratic basis, then the litmus test will be whether or not the voice of the Israeli people is restricted.

Currently, the Knesset, Israel’s legislature, is a unicameral house patterned after the British parliamentary system. According to the Basic Laws of Israel, a committee comprised of lawyers and Supreme Court justices selects a Supreme Court judge. Thus, elected representatives have little say in appointing justices.

Israel’s Supreme Court justices appoint those they wish to see fill a vacant seat, creating a high court built on nepotism, not democracy. The proposed judiciary reform would shift power away from an elite, unelected committee to the government elected by the people.

The proposed reform adds much-needed checks and balances to Israel’s Supreme Court. In the 1990s, Aharon Barak, who served as Israeli Supreme Court president, led what he dubbed a “constitutional revolution,” which gave the high court the power to overturn any laws set by Israel’s legislative branch—a blatant overreach of power that stifles the voice of the elected government. In his Newsweek editorial, Josh Hammer called Barak’s arrangement a “juristocracy, where a nation’s supreme court rules the roost.”

A poll found that the Israeli Supreme Court’s approval ratings are at an historic low of 42 percent. While citizens stress concerns about government power over the judiciary, 84 percent of Israelis believe the judicial system needs an overhaul; and only 22 percent support everything in the proposed reform.

Whatever decision is made, Israeli democracy is hard at work in the Middle East. The citizens voted for Netanyahu and his conservative government. If they don’t like the direction the country is headed under Netanyahu’s watch, they can vote him and his coalition out. It’s happened before, and it can happen again.

At a glance, it doesn’t seem Netanyahu wishes to strip Israel of its democratic bedrock. Instead, it appears he’s trying to balance power and strengthen Israeli democracy by giving a voice back to the people.