Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary has sparked unprecedented protests across Israel. After a brief pause, hundreds of thousands are back in the streets.
Critics see a far-right coalition cobbled together by a prime minister under three indictments weakening the courts and concentrating power in his own hands. Backers of the overhaul see it as a corrective that will put power in the hands of the elected majority, where they think it belongs.
Two new Journal of Democracy essays explain the roots of the crisis and what it could mean for the future of Israeli democracy.
Why Israeli Democracy Is in Crisis
When Israel’s new government introduced proposals that threatened the judiciary’s independence, the country erupted in protest. These tensions will not soon end. Likud, once a center-right party, is now as populist as the European far right.
By Noam Gidron
Inside the Fight to Save Israeli Democracy
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants the public to see his efforts to overhaul the Israeli judiciary as a “reform.” But people have seen it for what it is: a struggle over the very future of democracy itself.
By Natan Sachs
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