In Israel, notwithstanding the unprecedented mobilization of the people, participating in the continued protest movement since January 2023, the Israeli parliament passed a crucial judicial reform. On Sept. 4, 2023, the Israeli protesters gathered at 4,400 locations across the country. According to the Police Commissioner, nearly seven million Israelis have demonstrated in these locations. Obviously, the vast majority of the 9.3 million population in Israel are opposed to the judicial reform, carried forward by Israel’s right-wing coalition government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel does not have a constitution. Individual laws were often passed to regulate the institutions such as executive, legislative and judiciary. Currently, Israel’s right-wing government has been trying to reset many aspects of the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judiciary.
The Israeli parliament, called Knesset, did not have a second chamber to review and check legislations passed in Knesset. So, Israel’s Supreme Court had been functioning relatively in a strong position. Because of its stronger role, the Supreme Court had been able to declare government decisions as “inappropriate” and make them null and void. The particular clause, granting powers for the Supreme Court was targeted by the Netanyahu’s government and the government intended to do away with the concerned clause.
In Knesset, out of a total of 120 members, all 64 government MPs voted in favor of the government’s proposal. The law had now been passed. The government is also planning another judicial reform, giving more powers for the government over the judicial appointments. It seemed to be voted in the autumn session of Knesset.However, the negotiations are going on between the protesters and the government.
The government simply argued for judicial reform, saying that the judges were not elected by the people, like 120 members of the Knesset were, and curtailing the powers of the judiciary would strengthen Israeli democracy. Not subscribing to the views of the government, the critics were accusing the government for grabbing power in favor of executive authority, leading to the worst form of authoritarianism. The main slogan of the protesters was that they were against the”destruction of democracy”.
The people feared that a deeper division of Israeli society would occur due to the judicial reform. On many occasions, the Supreme Court defended democratic norms on the issues relating to gender equality, the protection of sexual minorities against religious restrictions, etc. The secular, left-wing or liberal people fear that restructuring of the judiciary would strengthen the ultra-Orthodoxy in Israel.
The developments in Israel are not isolated phenomena.
The neoliberal policies pursued by governments in many Asian countries led to severe inequalities, loss of jobs and income. World Bank studies showed that around 80 million additional people, most of them from poor countries, including many Asian countries, were pushed back into extreme poverty from the start of the pandemic until September of last year. However, the real number was much higher. The people have no other way but to protest the governments’ policies. Hence, the governments are choosing the path of authoritarianism to curtail the democratic rights of the people. The authoritarian moves of the ruling elites are also facing the wrath of the people.
The Freedom House Report for 2021 and 2020 described the sharp decline of democracies. It said that “fewer than a fifth of the world’s population now lives in fully free countries.” This trend of democratic decline and rising authoritarianism was caused during the neoliberal era i.e. in the last 30 years.
In many of the 11 countries of South-East Asia, the prevailing level of democracy is declining considerably.Recently; Myanmar’s military postponed an election, promised by August this year, extending a state of emergency. The emergency was imposed after the 2021 coup. It is revealed that the military’s crackdown on protesters led to the killing of more than 3800 people and more than 24,000 got arrested.
In 2022, economic, food, debt, energy and humanitarian crisis had blown up in Sri Lanka. A popular movement developed, and in March 2022 the authoritarian and inept regime was overthrown. But the island nation has not seen any new radical change, with tragic return to status quo. The government led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has not solved the perennial livelihood problems caused by the economic wreck of the previous neoliberal governments.
People in Afghanistan have been struggling against economic ruin and the most conservative views, dominant in Afghan social life, which are promoted by the ruling Taliban. The Afghan people are favoring reforms like women’s emancipation and the advancement of ethnic minorities. In the same way, many countries, including Pakistan, were in serious turmoil.
History has ample evidence to illustrate that the popular movements of the working people played a critical role in developing and defending democracy. Since the working people are at the receiving end by the onslaught of corporate-driven neoliberalism, they have the duty to come forward, united, to defend the existing democracies and develop them into full-fledged, real bastions of freedom.
N. Gunasekaran is a political activist and writer based in Chennai, India.
From The Progressive Populist, October 1, 2023
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