While reading up about the origins of Basic Laws – Human Dignity and Freedom and Freedom of Occupation, it suddenly dawned on me that our current government is not the first full right-wing/religious government in our 75-year history.
In fact, the first such government was formed in June 1990 by then-Likud Leader Yitzhak Shamir. In the 1988 Knesset election, the Likud received 40 seats, the haredi parties received 13 and the National Religious Party (NRP) plus three additional parties to the right of the Likud –Techiya, Tzomet and Moledet – received 12. Altogether, that was 65 seats.
In this past election to the 25th Knesset on November 1, the Likud received 32 seats, the haredim 18, and the parties to the right of the Likud – Religious Zionist, Otzma Yehudit and Noam – received 14 seats. Altogether, that was 64 seats.
The other common denominator of these two governments is the fact that both were/are directly connected to revolutionary changes in Israel’s constitutional set-up: The 1990-1992 government because the two human rights basic laws I mentioned at the outset were enacted in the course of its term. The second formed on December 29, 2022, because within the framework of the revolutionary changes it is in the process of implementing in Israel’s legal and judicial system, it plans to reverse much of what was achieved in the early 1990s.
In fact, right after the 1988 elections, despite the fact that he could easily have formed a full right-wing/religious government, Shamir preferred to form another national unity government (NUG) with the Labor party (which received 39 seats in the elections) and thus continue the tradition of NUG of the previous four years.
However, in March 1990, against the background of growing differences of opinion with the Likud over how to react to American initiatives to promote some sort of political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians (this was in the course/aftermath of the first Intifada), Labor leader Shimon Peres initiated a move to bring down the government by means of a vote of no-confidence in the Knesset, which was successful, and remains the only time a government in Israel was brought down by this means. However, Peres subsequently failed to form an alternative government and in June 1990, Shamir formed a narrow government, supported by the 65 MKs of all the right-wing/religious parties.
Differing opinions and the Israeli Right
WHEN THE 1988 NUG was first formed, justice minister Dan Meridor from the Likud, initiated Basic Law: Basic Human Rights. However, as soon as this government fell and the new government was formed, work on the bill came to an abrupt end because in its coalition agreements with the haredi parties, the Likud had agreed to put a stop to the promotion of this legislative initiative.
While the haredim opposed such legislation ab initio for religious reasons and the NRP and the more radical right-wing parties had no interest in it, members of the Likud were divided on the issue. At this time the Likud was still made up of the more dominant Herut movement and the Israel Liberal Party. Herut itself included quite a few liberal right-wingers, such as Roni Milo and Dan Meridor – the latter, as mentioned above, the initiator of the human rights legislation.
Even though the 1990-1992 government as such did not support the human rights legislation, the two human rights laws mentioned above, proposed by opposition MK Amnon Rubinstein from the centrist Shinui party, were passed by a respectable majority, which included MKs from the Likud and from the opposition (see my article on the subject from January 10). It is worth noting that even one of the five members of the NRP – MK Rabbi Yitzhak Levy – supported the laws and was active in the process of their formulation.
There is no doubt that the team that promoted and pushed the legislation, was much more dedicated and systematic than those forces in the government and in the Knesset – including the then-speaker of the Knesset Dov Shilansky from the Likud – that opposed it. Furthermore, the fact that the chairperson of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, MK Uriel Lynn from the Liberal Party within the Likud, was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the legislation, helped get it through. Behind the scenes, Meridor also played a certain role.
Today, we know that the passage of the two human rights basic laws led to much more far-reaching changes in Israel’s legal system than their mere (much delayed) addition to the Israeli law book. Each of the two laws included a clause that opened the door to much greater intervention by the High Court of Justice in the Knesset’s legislative activity, especially on issues related to human rights, than had previously been possible – or what is commonly known as judicial activism.
HOWEVER, WHEN the laws were passed, very few people were fully aware of this potential development and it took time before the opponents of this activism from the more radical Right started to express their opposition to what they referred to as the liberal constitutional revolution (to which the name of former President of the Supreme Court, Prof. Aharon Barak was attached) and to start dreaming of a counter-revolution.
It should also be noted that the major defeat suffered by the Likud in the June 1992 elections and the formation of the second Rabin government diverted the attention of the new opposition to the Oslo Accords that this government signed with the Palestinians and away from the liberal constitutional revolution. It has taken the Likud and its partners almost 30 years to be able to take their revenge not only for the liberal constitutional revolution but for the alleged persistent control of Israel’s legal and judicial system by the old elites, even though they are no longer formally in power.
In other words, the current massive reform plan of Justice Minister Yariv Levin to Israel’s legal and judicial system can and should be viewed as the implementation of such a counter-revolution. Unfortunately, in the current full right-wing/religious government, there are hardly any liberals left and the few that do exist are wary of openly saying anything against the illiberal revolution.
Within the Likud, the general atmosphere is much more populist than ever before and those who call the shots on legal constitutional issues are radical right-wingers led by Levin. In addition, the current chairperson of the Knesset Constitution Law and Justice Committee is a member of the Religious Zionist Party – MK Simcha Rothman – who is even more extreme in his radical approach to the idea of a constitutional counter revolution than Levin himself.
The difference between the full right-wing/religious government of 1990-1992 and the current such government is that the latter appears to have full command of the 64 votes that support the Government and the former was not in control of its own 65. It is therefore not surprising that the current government is inclined to put its trust in its automatic majority and play hard to get within the framework of the valiant efforts of President Isaac Herzog to get the sides to sit down and work out a workable compromise, that will ward off, at least for a certain period, a more serious breach in the society, while leaving Israel’s legal and judicial system in better shape than it is today, even if imperfect in almost everyone’s eyes.
The writer worked in the Knesset for many years as a researcher, and has published extensively both journalistic and academic articles on current affairs and Israeli politics. Her most recent book, Israel’s Knesset Members – A Comparative Study of an Undefined Job, was published by Routledge.