Crisis is time to protect democracy, not weaken it – comment

The Knesset can now only intervene in hindsight a measure that even Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin – a right-wing firebrand – spoke out against.

By YAAKOV KATZ
An empty Knesset Plenum (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
An empty Knesset Plenum
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Not every revolution takes place in a single night. It's not always about a revolutionary who breaks into the presidential palace, ousts the leader, sits on the throne and begins to consolidate power. Sometimes, it is a slow process that includes attacks on the judiciary, the police, the media and the legislature. By the time you realize what has happened, it is too late to turn things back.
Due to the virus that is raging outside, inside and all around, it is easy to write off what happened in the Knesset early Tuesday morning as a necessary step. Israel is in the midst of an extreme rise in infections and it is easy to believe that all means are necessary to stop it. It is understandable why people would want decisive leadership that can break down barriers and bureaucracy, and ensure that the restrictions needed to keep people safe are immediately implemented and adopted.
The law, passed in the middle of the night, gives Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unprecedented powers and the ability to pass restrictions on the Israeli people without any real oversight. He wants to cancel protests or close the courts? All he needs are a few WhatsApp messages of agreement from his ministers. He wants to place people in lockdown or install a censor over what the media reports? Again, just a few text messages.
People will say that this is an exaggeration. That the ministers will not allow this to happen and that the law gives the Knesset seven days to overturn the decisions made by the coronavirus cabinet if it wants to. In the meantime, the decisions passed by the cabinet go into effect immediately. The Knesset can now only intervene in hindsight a measure that even Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin – a right-wing firebrand – spoke out against.
In essence, this is a law meant to bypass and weaken the Knesset, whose role is not just to legislate but also to provide oversight and hold the executive branch accountable. Until now, the government spoke about laws that would bypass the High Court, that would restrict the media and would keep the attorney-general in check. Now, it is looking for a way to weaken the legislature.
What happened in the predawn hours is just another step in the breakdown of the rule of law in Israel and the foundation of what it means for a country to be a democracy – to have a separation of powers and branches which ensures that power is not centralized in one place and within one authority.
What this law does is push Israel’s democratic character closer to the edge at a time when it needs to be protected more than before. A crisis is not a time to undermine democracy or rule of law. It is a time to safeguard and protect it since – as we have seen in recent months – it is so fragile and susceptible to change.
What is happening is not something whose effects we will feel in a single night. It is slow, methodological and careful. It is a process that each time chooses a different part of government and society and tries to weaken it or take it down. The police haven’t had a full-time commissioner for almost two years, the judges are under constant attack, the attorney-general needs bodyguards and journalists are attacked on the streets.
On Tuesday morning, it was the Knesset’s turn.