Without being able to vaccinate our liberal democracies and their main institutions against the rise of authoritarian populism, they must be defended. This is exactly what has just happened in Israel.
We must rejoice at the “pause” in this country of the worrying judicial reform project of the government of Binyamin Netanyahu.
Attention ! The project, which has been denounced in Israel and elsewhere in the world – the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, had called for its abandonment in mid-March – is not dead and buried.
The coalition government formed last December, which hastened to table this legislation in early January, has not said its last word.
But his ardor was curbed by the historic mobilization of opponents of the reform.
In an interview on Tuesday, Israeli political scientist Gideon Rahat praised both the “democratic zeal” of these fellow citizens and the “remarkable” diversity observed during the demonstrations.
“There were feminists, pro-gay people, more moderate people, liberals, conservatives… People with different agendas who came together. It was very pluralistic,” the expert, affiliated with the Israel Democracy Institute, told us.
This is proof that populism can be confronted by pluralism.
Israeli political scientist Gideon Rahat
These recent developments are therefore to be welcomed. But we must also fear for the future, hoping that the government will eventually listen to reason.
The protesters have won a battle, but not the war.
The Israeli government – which “has suffered a hostile takeover by a messianic, nationalist and anti-democratic group”, according to opposition leader Yair Lapid – still seems intent on weakening the power of the Supreme Court of country.
His bill, it should be remembered, contains a series of measures aimed at reducing both the independence and the scope of the powers of the highest court in the land.
The Israeli government wants both to control the commission which selects the judges, to prevent the Supreme Court from invalidating so-called “fundamental” laws that it could have adopted in the future and to adopt a “derogation clause” which would allow Parliament to overrule the decisions of the highest court in the land. Among other things.
So here we find ourselves faced with a government that is seeking to bring an essential counter-power to heel – one of the few, it must be specified, in Israel.
This is why the democratic nature of the state is at the heart of current debates.
Some, moreover, are worried about another recent development in this controversial file. And if the pause in the examination of the reform project announced another drift?
Media reported that the prime minister offered a troubling compromise to the minister of national security, far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir. In exchange for his support, he would have promised him the command of a “national guard”.
Several quickly denounced what, in their eyes, would amount to the creation of a “private militia”.
To understand what is happening in Israel, it is useful to pay particular attention to the analyzes of Cas Mudde, a specialist in the far right and populism.
He explained last month in the daily The world that we are witnessing both a trivialization of the far right and, in parallel, a rapprochement (a “hybridization”) with the traditional right in several countries. Including in Israel.
“The mainstream right has also embraced far-right themes, with immigration presented solely as a security or identity risk, whereas not so long ago newcomers were touted as contributing to growth. economic,” says this expert.
With the result that “the proximity between the right and the extreme right is reflected on the institutional level by a greater number of government coalitions integrating the most radical formations”.
It would therefore be wrong to interpret the current crisis in Israel as an anomaly.
This is partly the result of a trend observed in several countries.
All those who have the survival of liberal democracies at heart would do well to observe what is currently happening in Bibi’s country with great interest.