I haven't written much about the proposed ruin of Israeli democracy in the past
few months, mainly because after the
events
at the end of March, there was a distinct slowing of the government's agenda.
This was in no doubt due to the period of festivals that began with Passover,
then Remembrance Day followed by Independence Day, then completed by the harvest
festival of Shavu'ot. But if the government thought that we had forgotten their
intentions, then they were wrong.
The pace has heated up in the past few weeks as the joke of the Knesset Law
Committee has passed the full original abandonment of the 'reasonability'
clause. When this law gets passed in the Knesset next week (and of course it
will), it means that NO ELECTED OFFICIAL IN ISRAEL WILL FACE OVERSIGHT ON ANY
DECISION. It means that the legal advisors to all ministers can be replaced
without problem; the allegiance of the legal advisors is to the law whereas
the allegiance of the ministers - or town majors - is only to themselves and
to their supporters.
We were promised a speech by the Prime Minister this evening, in the hope that
maybe he might finally understand how much damage he is doing (or allowing to
happen) to Israeli democracy. Instead of pouring water on the spreading fire,
Netanyahu poured petrol and made the flames grow higher.
He started by noting that next week is the fast day that commemorates the
destruction of the Second Temple (Tisha b'av). Obviously the irony of this
timing - that his government is causing the metaphorical destruction of the
third temple - was lost upon him. Once again we heard the tired lies that he
and the government had approached the opposition time and time again with
requests to discuss the proposed legislation but was rebuffed every time. In
truth, the opposite is true: last night, almost joint opposition leader Benny
Gantz (who is leading Netanyahu in the polls) called for more discussion but
was ignored.
I stopped listening because all the old lies were trotted out once again - we
received the mandate to rule and we are ruling; it is not democracy when a
minority force their opinions on the majority (and the religious parties don't
do this? They're maybe 15% of the population but have non-proportionate
political power); etc etc etc.
God knows what will happen next week. Once this law is passed, these people
can do whatever they want with no fear that their decisions will be
overturned. Oh, let's bin the law about elections, let's rule forever!
Presumably the law will be challenged in the supreme court, and I assume that
the court will not accept this law - and this brings us to an interesting
situation in which the government will not accept the court's decision. This
is the real anarchy - denial of the rule of law. Oh sorry, I forgot: the
government makes the laws and we all have to obey them. No oversight. We are the anarchists.
Civil disobedience. Civil war. It is definitely coming.
Like thousands of others, I devoted my life to this country and now it is being torn from me. How would I have reacted had this happened 50 years ago? Would the course of my life be changed?
This day in history:
| Title | Tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 95 | 1971 was when the music came together | Habonim, King Crimson, Van der Graaf Generator, Tom Wolfe, Yes, 1971, Dave Evans, Music festivals, Jack Kerouac | |
| 264 | Alarm clock mp3 player | clock radio | |
| 879 | Vinyl log 19 - 20 July | Van der Graaf Generator, Vinyl log, 1972 | |
| 1053 | Back to the beginning | DBA | |
| 1244 | More on Movie Maker | Home movies |
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