Israel’s Controversial Judicial Reforms Explained
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- Опубліковано 14 бер 2023
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While Netanyahu's re-election had already caused controversy, his new judicial reform bill might be his most contentious move yet, sparking widespread protests in Israel. So in this video, we take a look at the bill, and whether he can get away with it.
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A significant part that was left out is that even if the laws pass, the supreme court will likely overrule them. This means we're heading for the first Israeli constitutional crisis, an outstanding achievement for a country without a constitution!
How does a court overrule a law without a constitution?
@@badluck5647 That's exactly the problem. The courts basically decided that they needed to weight in on policy issues and took the power to veto laws passed by the Knesset. In essence, Israel hasn't been a true democracy since the '90s, since policy is determined by un-elected judges - not the democratically elected government.
@@badluck5647 the basic laws (which were also mentioned in the video) serve that role basically
@@banto1 That's some high level authoritarian bs. The judges are elected consensually by a committee that included representatives of the government, Knesset, public delegates and seating judges. Essentially every faction have a veto right, thus insuring stability and independence of the court.
@@banto1 I would argue that Isreal wasn't a functioning democracy until the 90s because a functioning democracy needs an independent court that can protect the people from legislators who violate rights and the law.
Instead of mob rule overriding basic (constitutional) protections with a simple majority, the obvious solution is to give a check on the judiciary to the legislators. For example, America lawmakers don't appoint federal judges, but they do have to approve them with 51 of 100 votes. (It should be 60 of 100, but that is an issue for another day).
“The answer to the country’s problems is to give me and my friends the authority to do whatever we want!”
-said every dictator ever
That’s literally what the committee of judges do currently, elect there friends and people they agree with. Giving the power to the parliament like in almost every democracy is a good plan.
@@michaelryan3960 every functional democracy on earth maintains separation of powers, i.e. splits authority between legislature, executive, and judiciary. The U.S. does this explicitly by giving Congress the sole authority to define laws, the President the authority to enforce them, and the courts the authority to overturn laws which violate the Constitution. Why? Because giving one branch of government the authority to override all others is an good recipe for tyranny of the majority-allowing whoever controls the government to violate the rights and liberties of those who do not.
Kind of like Bibi’s opponents accuse him of doing.
Odd coincidence, that.
The Framers of the U.S. Constitution weren’t perfect, but they did know their history. Absolute authority attracts the absolutely corruptible. Since men are not angels, there must be government; since government is made up of men, it must be made to govern itself.
@@davidblair9877 then clearly you have no idea how politics works in Singapore. We got the same government since 1959.
Today they are still winning super-major of between 90 to 96% of the seats in the Parliament.
@@freddiemercury2075 what are you talking about, isn't Singapore a dictatorship or something?
@@idokatzenell3667 LOL noooo, we have a fair election every 5 to 6 years. Government support here is still very strong for now even after 60+ consecutive years under their leadership. Official polling shows more than 3/4 of all Singaporean fully trust the government. We are a fully functioning democracy country, though the West would try to call us a dictatorship because we have the same government since the late 50s.
Remember, a democracy doesn't mean that you have to change your government every other year.
This is why it’s important to have a written constitution.
That doesn't always avoid classes between judiciary and legislative. Hell Indian judiciary are basically feudal lords now, they have completely discarded the constitution on appointment of judges.
They would have done the same thing
so that a majoritarian government can rewrite it and codify their insanity?
@@jonathanodude6660 if majority is insanity, what really is democracy? Minority rule?
@@navdeepkumar5085 democracies work best with strong institutions and a well educated electorate. Demagogues still exist and having checks to make sure they don't have unrestricted power is how you avoid a Yeltson/Putin situation.
A perfect example how corrupt politicians highest priority is to stay in power no matter what the negative consequences for the country & nation would be.
Quite sad really, all Israel's leaders have been either corrupt or war criminals - or both
Firstly, No connection between the judicial reform And his trial. His trial is going on for about 2 years and it's in the last phase.
Secondly, the cases against him are crumbling and falling apart in court.
Its a sad reality. Israel is a heaven on the middle east only country with a true democracy etc.. but it's all going to shit beacuse of that criminal
Netanyahu has been the subject of several legal investigations in the past few years. I don't know how he's not in jail but I do know why he's doing this.
Israel flirted with the bad man.
Isn’t this behavior natural when you elect an official who was already under investigation for corruption?
Isn't the concern-trolling about 'democracy' from leftoids on this issue completely farcical, considering less than a year ago they were furiously calling for abolishing the Supreme Court in the US because "muh borshinz!!" were in danger, despite the SCOTUS being far less powerful than Israel's judiciary?
The charges against Netanyahu are totally politically motivated and are themselves reflective of the tendency of the court to be corrupted by their power
Happen in some countries though
Man has a steady group of voters whom may as well worship him (for some reason) and believe the investigation for corruption is all a ploy to undermine him
Yes, Netanyahu's corruption trial is the single root of this problem. There are other factors but they don't really matter (at least not for understanding this current crisis), if it wasn't for his trial he would either not be reforming the courts at all or he would be doing it in a way that doesn't weaken Israel's democracy.
In fact Netanyahu has said on multiple occasions in the past that he stopped all attempts at judicial reform and that an independent judiciary is essential to democracy.
m.ua-cam.com/video/ZNaXE_BR0uw/v-deo.html
"The will of the people" is sometimes cruel and unjust. This is why the Rule of LAW is important, because people will try to assert Rule by Man, and call it the "will of the people"
Yep. "Common sense" =/= "Good sense".
Another Technocrat.
Whom do you mean, @@compovi8461..?
yet Laws can be corrupted and could end up maintain an unhealthy status quo and process becomes more important than substantive changes.
That's a valid point, @@PowerPuffSoldier, slavery is oft legalized, as is bribery. Yet, I would argue it is the people who corrupt the laws, though that may be a distinction without a difference is some cases. The details will always be the most important part of any situation
Israeli here. This is *by far* the best summary in english I've seen. Very well put together, well done!
and what do you think about that?
Apartheid on steroids
No one cares actually. It’s very boring to be honest just leave the land for it’s helpless people 😂😂😂😂
It is. And still heavily left biased.
@@leandrodlamas8993
About what?
About this crappy "reform"?!?
What we think is that Netanyahu and half of his party should be in jail. He is disgusting.
There are protests everyday. We will burn the whole country if he goes too far
Most countries Don't have an independent judiciary they are mostly semi independent, so it's strange that people from Europe without fully a independent judiciary system are crying about what's going on in Israel.
Most countries are failing corrupt democracies
" . . . were just too busy to establish an independent judiciary . . . "
Priceless.
What's more funny is that Israel's declaration of independence clearly states that they will write a constitution in the same year...they never did.
Well I mean, we did have a lot of existence-threatning wars... And a lot of religoous radicals who are ambivalent about democracy....
@@os44881616 That's no excuse. Every country has that shit going on. The USA was under continual threat of reoccupation during its first 100 years. The entire New England region of the United States was founded by religious radicals. What we're seeing in Israeli history is just an inexcusable sloppiness. Absolutely no effort was made whatsoever. Nobody was really serious about making Israel a going concern.
To be fair they did have to immediately fight off almost all of their neighbors in a war that could have gone either way. That's a reasonable thing to be kept busy by in my opinion.
@@frederickvonabel6349 For over SEVENTY (70) YEARS? About 20% of Ireland's landmass is STILL under enemy occupation, and they had a written constitution and supreme court WITHIN THE SAME YEAR THE FREESTATE WAS FOUNDED.
The Irish. That's who are laughing at Israeli incompetence.
Yes, that is how low Israel has sunk.
Protection the independence of judiciary becomes far more important in parliamentary forms of democracy, because of the legislative- executive coalition. Excecutive and legislative power clashes are often the thing that protects minorities and marginalised groups from the legislative power of the majority. A codified constitution with clear demarcations between the three branches seems to be the need of the hour for Israel. But obviously, with the current fractured political landscape, any reform or referendum is akin to opening a pandora's box. And that's all aside from the fact that he's literally breaking apart the structure of the country to keep himself and his cronies out of jail. As long as they have majority, they won't face justice and prosecution, and without justice they'll continue to win elections and continue to enact laws that will keep them in power.
So it's basically a vicious cycle of corruption?
This is the inherent flaw of parliamentary democracies. there is virtually no distinction between the executive and legislative, they are very easy to subvert by aspiring autocrats (although people are being a bit too hasty in immediately concluding that this is Netanyahu's goal)
The zionist entity should not overcrowd it’s political structure since it’s totally dependent on US support which will soon be no longer able to aid.
The charges against Netanyahu are totally politically motivated and are themselves reflective of the tendency of the court to be corrupted by their power
What country are you from?
Remember when Israel argued for support because they were a democracy in a region of authoritarian governments?
"You've become the very thing you swore to destroy"
I don't support the bill...but even if it is passed...Israel will, without any question remain the strongest democracy in the region of hell hole dictatorships and authoritarian governments...foshaw
They are still a democracy, for now..
Though at risk to become an a-liberal democracy like Hungary or Poland
Their judiciary is anti-democratic.
@@Marco-wz3pz Hungary is 10 times worse than Poland tbh
As an Israeli right winger, I'd like to point out the following:
1. The court system has this weird tendency to make judgement using a "likelihood clause". This means that they often make decisions, declare executive actions, and give Govt officials orders based on any case they are currently dealing with. For example: The courts have removed 10 laws regarding illegal immigrants based on this clause alone, without citing any legal foundation whatsoever. They then "proposed" a new law which would force the govt to pay immigrants to leave.
Also note that in Israel, the court system had decided that anyone can approach it on any topic. So if a foreign funded organization chooses to sue the govt for every conservative decisions it plans on making, the court has taken the liberty to judge whether or not they can do it, when and how.
2. The process of selecting new judges is weird. Effectively, the coalition, opposition, judges and prosecuting attorneys (PAs) have a meeting to choose nominees as judges. Since the judges, PAs and opposition are often like minded liberals, this means the coalition often finds itself at a disadvantage. A great example is when former MK Ayelet Shaked (from the right) had been lauded for getting centrist judges nominated for the first time ever. The fact she pulled it off shocked the entire political system. 24 hours later, a police investigation had been opened on the PA who helped her do it. And during that very brief time a lot of leaks and dirt had been revealed to the public.
3. The govt is not allowed by law to represent itself in front of the court system, in order to appeal or propose anything the court system doesn't approve. You see, the legal representative of the govt are chosen by the court as nominees, and the prime minister must choose amongst them. So very often, the legal rep. will overrule the duly elected govt MK at his own discretion, without any oversight. This has prevented the right from proposing any new laws that may be controversial to the liberal minded, while at the same time, when the left was in power, they had free reign to pull funding from certain minority groups, override religious agreements between govt and state, and make very shady deals with the support of the court.
In summary, the right accuses the courts of being corrupt because they nominate like minded people in spite of elections (often relatives), and of directly meddling and controlling the proceedings of the executive and legislative branches of the country. And if you stop saying stupid things like "Bibi is evil", and start seeing things like "how did an attorney just undermine his client by telling the police not to listen to their MK", you'd see a different story than what is told here.
Why didn't Bibi propose a new constitution? A constitution that requires the supreme Court to interpret it? He proposed something that looks like a power grab.
The Coalition is trying to confine the "likelihood clause" into a legal context, because this clause has no legal basis for being used and is being used in wild ways:
The clause is used to prevent enforcing the law against minorities - giving the supreme court power over the law.
The clause has been used to dismiss existing laws - giving the supreme court power over the legislature.
The clause has been used to dictate action upon the government - giving the supreme court power over the government.
This is not a power grab. This is a healthy step any democratic country must make in order to maintain its' democracy.
The media spin fails to recognize this because the "likelihood clause" has leaned heavily in favor of Western Left Opinion.
This issue is exactly why the Right Block is in majority (about 65%).
Conservative opinion is effectively illegal because the court leans against it (35% of the country immediately has no voice).
Israels' ability to protect itself, enforce the law, and maintain order, is compromised by the supreme court (15% of the progressive right and 15% of the left that are harried by crime and terrorism)
Israeli here, must say that the majority of Israelis voted this government to establish clear and functioning checks and balances between the keneset and the Supreme Court, but the reform that is on the table is considered radical by alot of Israelis, even some likud voters. Both coalition and opposition act recklessly, and I hope some accepted compromise will be achieved.
Because it threatens to throw Israel into an economic, social, and political disaster. Should this get any worse, the only thing stopping the vultures picking on your corpse is the eagle flying overhead
you said the justices here are much more secular than the average Israeli, which is blatantly not true, speaking as an Israeli, most people one meets on a day-to-day basis here are usually secular folk just like most people you meet anywhere in the western world. They are even not that much more liberal than most of us, after all, there exist other parties than the ones in the coalition.
That is your echochamber man.
There are only 1/2 religious justices, and few traditionalists, out of 15 - while at over 20% are religios, and another 25-30% traditionalists.
Not to talk about muslim arab, which are also conservative.
I am secular and enjoyed many ruling, but claiming their views are not highly divergent from the general population is ridiculous.
I might be wrong since I don't live in Israel, but it seems to me that the seculars think they're more numerous because they're isolated from the Arab, Religious, and Haredi communities. Technically, Israel is a mosaic of many different Jews + the Arabs. On a practical level, it's more like a bunch of tribes that are in their own bubble and are loosely connected to each other only by the understanding that we're technically one people... and even that is now falling apart.
Sad to see that the Zionist dream is breaking apart.
I could be wrong here but isnt like pretty much every single major party zionist?
Including the ones not in the coalition atm.
The last govt was not secular at all.
Zionism is in conflict with secularism
The judges are like the extreme left party meretz. And they de facto elect themselves and clone themselves. So they are not only very left wing but allmost all homogenous in their world view.
I saw on statistics, There are 40% Secular Jews in the Israel population, and that's a dwindling number every year, their total numbers grew, but the Muslims, Conservative Jews, and Orthodox Jews, have expanded their numbers faster
Thanks for the coverage. Much appreciated from Israel. Would you like to interview opposition members?
Excellent summary. It is important to understand that although the ruling parties received a parliamentary majority, they did NOT garner a popular majority (similar to Bush/Gore in 2000). Add to that polls which show half of Likud voters do not support the speed and scale of the proposed reforms, and one can see how the claim that the government is simply following "the will of the people" is patently false.
Each of the ruling parties has their own ulterior motives for wanting the reforms to pass, which would ultimately hand them unlimited power free of any judicial constraints, to legislate away any rights they wish, and to 'tweak' future timing of elections and voter eligibility to ensure they stay in power indefinitely.
If you are going to compare this to US elections (Bush/Clinton/Perot of 1992 is a better one) where Perot got 20% of the popular vote but won no states and Clinton won massively despite only getting 43% of the popular vote.
@@myg14570 Where's the issue? Clinton got the most votes there.
That is not true. Roughly 51% voted for parties supporting his government.
Three parties fell short of the vote threshhold, two of them from the opposition - so his majority is larger.
But if you include all 3, including the smaller right-wing party as well, he got a narrow popular majority.
Seems that Netanyahu and his ilk behave in ways very similar to the hardline tories in the UK. They also have an 'unwritten constitution' to game, their brexit also has an official majority (52%) but a low real popular figure (37%) , and they also bleat on an on about the 'will of the people'. there has to be some friendships between Netanyahu/his people and the ERG types.
@@wta1518 yes but he did not get >50% of the votes. He only got 43%. As in he got elected off a minority vote, you can say 57% of the states didn't vote for him but he still got elected. Many parties didn't make it to the Israeli parliament because they did not meet the voter threshold (you have to earn a certain percent of votes to be represented) which is similar to how Perot won 20% of the vote but did not win a single state. As a result of the exclusion, Netanyahu's coloation got over represented and thus got a majority.
As an Israeli citizen, I can honeslty say that to my opinion and many other Israelis Netanyahu is the greatest threat to the future of Israel, in any realms possible.
As an Israeli I agree 👍
He should be in jail
I bet at least half of Israel thinks it is the other way around, that you leftists are the greatest threat to the future of Israel.
I agree :(((
Then how did he get relected?
@@arnavkhandekar166all them illegal russian and European immigrants that illegally went their
It is very early to burry Israeli democracy. Protests in Israel have always had an impact. At the end there will be a widely accepted solution for a required reform, without undermining the checks and balances.
Or, if Netanyahu has completely lost it, this legislation will be canceled by the Supreme Court and then heading to a constitutional crisis, which will lead to the end of Netanyahu’s rule
Let's see how it all ended up. If Netanyahu win, Israel and Palestine is fucked, so better to rely on the court to last long enough to prevail.
@@Anverse-14 the government has no army or security forces of its own, and they are not going to side with the government against the court. Because if they do so, they will loose their manpower.
The court will prevail, otherwise it’s gonna be a civil war (which is not a real option, our neighbors will jump in in a second)
@@Anverse-14
The germans had a court. They helped the nazis. But hitler burned the parliament.
You want a progressive technocracy. Not a democracy.
@@Anverse-14
He will not win
@@Anverse-14 You care about a fake land? Palestine does not exist.
In point 2, you probably mean the cancellation of the "reasonability" clause. This will apply not only to national security: as discussed in the Knesset in the last few days, this will allow the government free reign in curtailing liberalism itself: remove basic protections such as equal protection, the right to elect and be elected, open public legislative discourse, and even prevent judicial review of obviously corrupt decisions such as nepotism.
But you act like the judiciary in Israel is god, they're corrupt left wingers, all these does is remove the over powered capabilities from the corrupt unelected to the corrupt elected, which is preferable.
According to the largest poll done on the subject in Israel, a whopping 84% (!) support a judicial reform, but only 41% support a reform similar to what is being proposed (vs. 44% opposed), and just 22% support THE reform being proposed. The video did a decent job outlining why there is such great support for some reform - the supreme court has taken to itself unlimited powers, and is increasingly abusing them. If there is a major problem with Israel's democracy, this is it. On the other hand, the reform exactly as it's being put forward is very extreme in the other direction. That's the point though - if you are familiar with Israeli politics, you know that every partisan law proposal is always very extreme, in order to later soften it as a "compromise". What's different now though is that the opposition has reached a fever pitch, and the consequences are already being felt, even if the reform doesn't pass, or is softened. That's why the president is trying to find a compromise for those 84%.
The president is already being labeled a lefty by the coalition and their media puppets. So I don't think his proposal would be considered. The government doesn't feel the need to listen to anyone, they're going to pass it as they originally intended to (of course they thought there would be negotiations, so they overshot. They would now soften the laws a bit to what they wanted to get after these negotiations).
Actually they in favors to have any change in judicial but only 22% support government proposal reform of Judicial
Also 60% want to halt or delay judicial reform
Not mention there is protest where it number up hundred of thousand like 500k in one protest which is like more than 18% of population but Israeli government seem try crack down on them with heavy fine and anti riot police some time ago
Poll is confusion and can be unreliable
"Supporting a judicial reform" can mean literally anything. Including even giving more power to the judiciary.
For instance, I support a judicial reform, but only as a part of a greater reform in the method of administration, which includes much more checks and balances for the executive authority.
Such as two parliaments, more power to the legislature, establishment of a normal constitution and so on...
@@user-gr9fq9gt9w If we're at it, I'd like Israel to become a federation in which every municipality would belong to a semi autonomous canton. So the Haredi would have their Halacha state laws, Muslims would have sharia, the secular would have much more liberal laws than the current laws, and traditional jews would live pretty much how we live today. If more granularity is required, each municipality could be a canton of its own, and not just belong to a predefined set of options. This way each town, city or village could determine its own laws as long as they conform to a minimal widely agreed upon federal constitution.
@@MrWorshipMe
No, because Israel is an incredibly small state. What we refer as "sectors" are heavily intermixed (physically). It is not like Spain where you have the Catalan, Basque, Galician and even Andalucian ethnic groups which defined by clear borders in a certain place.
Without centralization, Israel is doomed. Period.
How convenient for a person who goes to the courts every week to hear the pending cases against him, that the court will do what his coalition decides, simply a wonderful solution
the more accurate translation is not "Basic laws" but "fundamental laws".
these laws are supposed to represent the fundamentals of our country- the rules of government and agenda of the state.
True, but "Basic Laws" is the official English term, as used by English communications of the Israeli government.
@@catomajorcensor semantics really.
Basically all the countries, India USA UK Germany and now Israel faces similar clashes between Legislature (Parliament) and Judiciary (Supreme Court).
It is fascinating that all the democracies have similar phenomena 🫠
Unfortunately where it comes to a government taking control of the courts and as such creating an environment where realistic political opposition becomes impossible it usually takes the military of the effected country removing the government from control before things can improve. This usually doesn't end well, at least in the short to medium term.
The IDF will never overthrow a far right Israeli government. Palestinians will literally be out in camps and killed before that happens
Large amounts of military reservists are refusing to report to duty in protest, which is AFAIK unprecedented in Israel... I'd be quite surprised if the active army intervenes in any way, however.
This happened in Apartheid South Africa, where the regime took power away from the courts
@@talknight2 Is the fact that the military reservists refused to report to duty the reason you were not ready for the terrorist attack? Can Israel afford to be a liberal democracy when you are surrounded by those abiding the laws of the middle ages?
Great video!, I would like to add that along side these attempted reforms on Israel's judicial systems, Netanyahu's government also tries to make similar reforms in Israel's police, making it easier for them to be bent and controlled by the whims of Israel's interior defense minister(a role currently occupied by arguably the most extreme and dangerous minister serving in Israel, itamar ben gvir). It doesn't get as much attention as the judicial reforms, but I would argue that politicizing the police and other units administrated by the office of internal security is just as dangerous.
The reforms basically implement what is called "legislative supremacy", known from the Westminster model.
An apartheid state never could have been democratic.
Calling the Supreme Court undemocratic is like calling the sky blue. Judicial review is an anti-majoritarian tool, intended to prevent tyranny of the majority. The problem is the Court is supposed to base its decisions from some sort of Constitution, not its own discretion of how it feels the country should work.
Perhaps writing down how the country is meant to work would help.
There lays the problem. The country is practically split down the middle on its core issues.
Every country needs a codified constitution w judicial review
No. These are western inventions. Most states had an uncodified constitution for millenias and did fine. See how difficult it is to change codified constitutions like the US-American one. They can't even make Washington D.C. a state because of their strict codified and antiquated constitution. A fluid uncodified constitution, however, is adaptable to needs of reform
We continue to protest here in Israel until we win!
Good on you. Protect your freedoms to the last man
“The only democracy in the Middle East” what a joke
They forgor Jordan...
Since when was it a democracy anyway? 🧐
thx for going with 4 things instead of 3 for a change. mixing it up every now and then is good.
Israel is a democracy..... *stares in Palestinian*
Israel is a democracy , meanwhile the palastinian president is on his 17th year of his 4 year term
What do you mean by this?
@@danfriedman2556 Oh, I wonder how that happened? Almost like Israel basically created Hamas to obliterate any other Palestinian movement. Now you psychos are using the same Hamas that was created by Israel as an excuse to oppress. This is not a conspiracy theory, Intercept has a wonderful article with sources on this, go check it out. Very funny for a rich country supported by the richest country to play a "Hah, look how much better we are compared to those we bomb and starve".
Excellent video. Surprisingly comprehensive and touches all the relevant points. Kudos!
Great video, thank you for going to the trouble to explain it
POV: An issue that can be solved by working on an agreed upon constitution
A government doesn't have to have human rights, separation of powers, or any other limits in order to be democratic. It needs those things to not be a dumpsterfire, but not to be democratic.
This is useful coverage! I hope they can figure this out for the best interest of a stable country!
As an Israeli, this was a pretty fair and unbiased representation.
Just the title might be a little misleading.
Thanks!
Not misleading at all
It is more democratic. Democracy is the rule of the people, and now the elected have more power over the law.
If you don’t like this, the issue is democracy itself.
Democracy is not tyranny of the majority. It must protect everyone's rights, even if they did not vote for the current gov. Sadly human nature will not make that happen without having checks and balances, therefor the supreme court is required to be strong. The Knesset is almost powerless and controlled by the government, making the need for the supreme court to be stronger and more independent than in other countries.
@@ido-oj1ce the definition of democracy is rule of the people, that’s literally what the words mean. There is no inherent aspect about any rights other than the right of people to rule.
Those checks and balances are against democracy. They are good because they take power away from the majority and elected bodies. They’re good because they’re not ruled by the people.
Why does that confer any need at all? Why does balance need to exist if your goal is rule of the people? Balance opposing singular rule of people.
Thank You for the information.
Should also note that the panel for appointment of judges requires a 7/9 majority for appointments.
This means that right now the supreme court cannot aploint judges without government approval.
The proposed change will allow the government to appoint loyal judges on their own.
As someone who studied law in the EU, I see this as fundamentally undemocratic.
If this were to happen here, I would also take to the streets.
Isreal seems to go downhill politically very fast if the government ( of criminals) continues like this.
Not to mention the settling policy and recent violents (called a "pogrom" by even an isreali General) and comments on it by government officials.
Problem is Israel doesn’t really have a constitution and the current government wants to change that.
Change is not bad if done right question is can it be done in a way that works. Do note what works best is not always what the people want.
The charges against Netanyahu are totally politically motivated and are themselves reflective of the tendency of the court to be corrupted by their power
@@darth3911
They don't want to create a constitution. The only reason we don't have a constitution is because some members of this coalition (the ultra orthodox) don't want a constitution.
They just want more power and a solution for their corruption (deri law, presents law, donation law etc)
Do you have at leas an idea of how the members of the supreme court are elected? Do you know the differences between Israel and European countries?
If the same guy wins six times, that's already a big red flag.
he didn't win 6 times in a row tbh but he's an authoritarian nonetheless.
he was out for awhile. But the factions that banded together to remove him couldn't keep the coalition together.
He hasn't won six times in a row and even if he did it is fine for a healthy democracy to do so (Merkel comes to mind). He is just really good at lying to his coloation partners.
Why? You mean he's too popular with ordinary voters?
@@johnallen7807 generally, if a single head of government wins that many times concurrently they are either extremely popular, manipulating elections (by making them not free or fair) or both. The fact that Israel does not have clear, formal institutions does not bode well here.
I was wondering for some time now, when this topic will get covered :D
Very informative thanks
Supreme Court : I overrule parliament
Parliament : I overrule you back !
Supreme court : I overrule your overruling
That is what happens when you dont have a codified constitution ... both can say they overrule each other , but once that happens , what next ? And who decides what comes next ?
Whoever has direct power, evidently. In a less developed country this would probably be a straight path to military dictatorship.
What's next will be decided by the other authorities/powers like police, army, intelligence agencies (Mossad, shin bet) and others.
In Israels case, most chances they will support the court and ignore the politicians. Most of them already stated they are unhappy with this "reform". (I'm Israeli by the way)
Who won? Who’s next? YOU DECIDE!
@@dym6464 EPIC! errrrrrRAP BATTLES OF POLITICS!
And the worst part is, when the court overrules, the only reason they need to give is the legislation is "unreasonable".
Haha mate most of the vulnerabilities you describe in Israelis political system are also present in New Zealand, the issue is how willing people are to abuse them, which seems to be very in Israel. 😅
It actually never was till the last few months. Because everyone respected everything
@@Tpmc9fq sure, which is why the PM is on corruption charges from years ago 🤔
Can you do a episode showing how the Supreme Court of the US vetoed Puerto Rico’s new Labor reform and how corruption affected the process ? Please these subject need visibility 😢
It has nothing to do with his cases, he was set on trails many many times before and went clean, his enemies are after him.
There goes another democracy
Not yet, the Supreme Court can still overrule Netanyahus plans, we just don't know what will happen then...
We are not hungry remember that
How does allowing an unelected body to strike down laws passed by a democratically elected legislature constitute "democracy"? Learn what words mean.
it never was, it was and always will be a colonial syndicate
@@TomorrowWeLive Democracy works on checks and balances not only on the will of the voters
Then Cyprus will be the only democracy left in the Middle East ☹️
Bibi takes power from unelected officials
Ends democracy
What?
Hopefully Turkey’s is saved in June
@@walleras yes. that is an accurate statement. All functioning democracies have an independent judiciary. So destroying the judiciary, which this law does, means they are no longer a functioning democracy. For example, anyone in the government would now free to commit any crimes they want since the government would have the power to overturn the courts.
Lebanon and iraq are democricies
Cyprus lol
Who consider them even a Middle Eastern nation? Nobody talks about Cyrpus anywhere outside of Greece and Turkey.
Great video!
"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain"
This is so true for Netanyahu. He used to be a hero and a paragon of virtue and justice, now he's a shell of his former self, and a threat to the democracy of the country he claims to love
Here's a quote from 2012 Bibi: "Without Bagatz (the Supreme court) a country is not a democracy"
The late Israeli Prime Minister Itzhak Shamir , who preceded Nethanyahu as the head of the Likud Party , has once referred to him the angel of destruction.
Israel is becoming surprisingly far fight considering that they also suffered under fascism
Their current government is awful
It’s so ironic considering their argument of being a free western democracy surrounded by Islamic monarchies and dictatorships… now they’re becoming just like their neighbours 😂
@@bababababababa6124 Yeah it’s really bad
It was a fascit country from the beginning, look up the nakba, there was soldiers from 1948 who were quoted as saying "we were doing to these people what the Germans did to us"
Always was. I mean they've been violating basic human rights for Palestinans for decades. Like the right to freely travel within ones own country, the right to return for refugees, the right to life, or how they're constantly in breach of international law with illegal settlements and the illegal occupation of foregin land. They have a lot in common with Russia on that one.
I am an Israeli citizen and UA-cam recommended this video to me and I am very interested to see how someone outside of Israel sees the situation and how people react to it, and most of the things said in the video are true about Israeli politics and how the Israeli system works but unfortunately the video misses the full picture, among the main reasons for the legal reform is Because most of the judges who are elected to serve on the Israeli Supreme Court choose themselves, that is to say, old judges elect new judges and powerful and wealthy people take advantage of this opportunity to promote their own interests and they block the progress of the government towards laws and the promotion of the economy in Israel and the Likud party wanted to bring about this reform many years ago and Bibi's election campaign was based on bringing legal reform and in the end of the day the people chose And of course there are many other reasons and things about the legal reform, but most of the reason for the reform is to free the economy and the government's freedom of action, but I do agree that a simple majority in order to veto a judiciary on a certain law can lead to a dangers abuse of government power and this is one of the most worrying things about the reform, but it can be fixed with a higher majority amendment and agreements between the authorities, I believe that Israel will emerge as a good and strong country and democracy will continue.
This is a big lie.
They definitely do NOT elect themselves. U are sadly fell for the right wing propaganda.
Also u are delusional if u think everything will continue as it was. People won't agree anymore to be slaves that serve in the army and pay taxes.
The last months changed everything, there is no coming back unfortunately
NOT TRUE. Judges are appointed by a panel that is composed of judges, lawyers, and politicians from both the coalition and the opposition. A special 7/9 majority is required to appoint a judge. That means that even if all judges and lawyers support a candidate it won't be enough.
It’s been an apartheid from day one!!!!
You know you can ask actual arabs in Israel for their opinions on the matter...
*A centrist and liberalist Israeli here:* Bibi (Benyamin Netanyahu) has done a wonderful job in the past, Israel has accomplished fascinating feats under his rule, but he is now far overripe for the position, his time has ended the moment he was even taken to trial for corruption allegations.
Israel needs a written constitution that will firstly establish the rights of all its citizens and place the Knesset and Supreme Court in their respective positions along with many other crucial checks and balances that can secure the nation's democracy.
Good to see my country
Wait
It’s not a country 🤯
@@mostafaa_dz It is a country!! Its on the map!!
@@mostafaa_dz lol you people are so delusional
@@Elivinu Have you seen yours?
@@departmentofpolice9776 “It’s on the map” not a valid excuse. Hong Kong is on the map while it’s a special administrative area of China.
Short answer: hell no
A democracy where a simple, temporary majority has unlimited power will not remain a democracy for long. Using a temporary majority to make your own power permanent is literally how Stalin became de facto dictator for life.
It's better than being ruled by 15 unelected, unwanted prevailed white men
Great coverage overall. Slight correction: the Supreme Court did not overturn the law that allowed the twice-convict Derri to return as minister. It just struck down Derri irregardless of the law, saying that since he agreed in his plea bargain to resign from politics and thus avoided jail time, the court is simply prevented from ruling any other way.
The law, despite being a personal law directed at a single MP, has gone through by the court. It's just the MP it was directed at who didn't.
Anyway, what's clear from this crisis is that Israel needs a constitution, one that can't be changed with a simple majority like nowadays and one that protects the rights of its citizens.
Easier said then done now that we can barely agree on anything.
Excellent summary I will add one thing, the 90s saw a new judge named Aharon Barak who brought a new an unprecedented approach to the court: nothing should be sparred from the court.
since than we basically have two competing governments one wich is often right wing is the elected one and the other one being predominately left wing that have a veto over the elected government and often overrules it
The days of judiciary activism have long passed. The supreme court was much more activist inthe 90's and early 00's. Most judges today are not activists. The one judge you can call an activist is actually Noam Solberg who leans to the rightwing.
great videos, enjoy them all :)
Pro tip on writing a Constitution: start it with "we the people".
Nicely done.
"Judicial activism" is a worldwide phenomenon. Once the Judiciary on many countries that copied some template of what the West defines as democracy sets in, and judges feel that they have certain level of security (personal, financial, legal) after a while, and given that in the end they are as vulnerable and corrupt as the same societies that they are supposed to judge, power becomes too much of a temptation to reject. Slowly but steadily a parallel power structure begins to form. Again, you can find it on many countries with the same conflicts among the powers. Suddenly a power that on certain political issues was meant for clarification became a key player of THE key player. Politicians also see their part of the pie curtailed by one power that is usually unmoved by electoral changes, what worsens relationships. Popular vote may demand certain things but if the judiciary has certain colors, changes don't happen and the population begin to distrust the system. You could argue that this is for good sometimes but other times, is merely political bias or activism, disguised with beautiful robes.
The processes to question judges who obviously go beyond their inherent role to that of de facto redefining laws by being "the voice of the interpreter" (what basically means that words means what you say you mean, period) is complex in most countries. Before, this was not a problem because the instability of all of these countries meant that judges who became too intoxicated with their ruling could risk the very system that put them in place and bring back tyrants who don't need judges but just administrators who do the tyrant's bidding.
Israel is not any other country. Historically its neighbors have played the important role of unifying the most disagreeable people (that is, the Jews of Israel) in favor of having survival in mind. The left in the West already decided that they dislike Israel for many reasons, even its own existence is questioned. In the next years, very soon, the power dynamics are about to change when Iran finally gets nuclear weapons (North Korea did it in spite of oh so many threats, and Iran is way stronger than North Korea).
So it is to be seen if Israel can come up with (finally) some constitution or some balancing of its model of governance, because Israel is one country that has not the luxury of waiting to see how popular quote that goes "Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times." becomes a reality, because Israel could finally fall, "the experiment" (as many see Israel as being) could last less than a century.
very informative
A good reform would be to make the committee for appointing judges without a majority (4 for the coalition and 4 for the opposition), and that the override clause would require 80 Knesset members
thank you for this explanation.
It reminds me of a saying or a quote from my secondary school when we were discussing Rome. For the first 2-3 centuries the Christians were persecuted within the Roman empire. They were often thrown to the lions in colosseums as a form of entertainment (Gladiator and all). But as Christianity gained prominence and became a state religion, it was the new Christians in power who were throwing their previous oppressors to the lions. Hence "it made no difference to the lions". This history often comes back to me when I think of Israel.
Since Aparthheid states arent democracies it never was
Even if the law is rolled-back, I wouldn't call Israel a democracy. Just an Apartheid.
The personal legal issues of Netanyahu and Deri are just that: personal. The judicial reform is between the government and the supreme Court, not individuals. So even if the reforms go through, Netanyahu and Deri will still face their day in court.
Not exactly true. There is legislation in progress now to allow Deri to serve as a minister even though he has a conviction. The courts would probably veto this law, which is why it is so important for the government to pass the law that allows them to veto a supreme court veto. interesting times.
Once freed from judicial interference the government will find some way to extricate them from their legal woes, you can be sure of that.
I don't know how can you be so naive. If Nethanyau take control over the prosecution they can just drop the case against him.
Their day in a court that they can stack with judges of their choice.
@@anderskorsback4104 straight up. I didn’t know so many people can be so extremely credulous.
My best hope right now is for Israel to pull a Maidan Revolution and storm the Knesset.
And get out of Palestine !!!!
Or get an operation Iraqi freedom
I highly doubt that's even a possibility. The one thing conservative and liberal Jewish Israelis politicians agree on is to keep the Palestinians subjugated. The whole reason Netanyahu came back to power is because the previous coalition led by liberal Jewish israeli parties realized that they didn't have enough support within their own coalition to maintain the west bank settlement policy without the support of Netanyahu's opposition coalition, which allowed Netanyahu to force the liberal Jewish parties to decide between either abandoning the west bank settlement policy or letting Netanyahu take back the reins. Obviously that's a simplification of what happened, but the underlying truth is that when push comes to shove, both conservative and liberal jewish Israeli politicians will oppose the kind of popular revolution which could ultimately threaten the west bank settlement policy.
@@skp8748You do realize operation Iraqi freedom is what lead to the formation of IsIs right?
If Iraqi freedom never happened IsIs would have never gained the power it did, not just that but the majority of Iraqs old government was given back its seats in government.
Only change was Shias had been given representation and they turned Iraq into Irans greatest ally. If you don’t know our relationship with Iran let me just simply say the operation completely failed.
Israelis* The people need to wrest power from wannabe tyrants.
The biggest problem is that even if these laws are passed -- the supreme court will strike them down, as, from their perspective, the laws were never legal in the first place. This will cause a constitutional crisis, essentially a deadlock, and Israel will be left with the following option:
1. The court backing down
2. Enough MKs from Netanyahu's coalition betraying him and initiating a no-confidence vote, resulting in a new election
3. The ruling coalition backing down, which might lead to another election being called anyway
4. No one backs down, meaning that as soon as the Knesset passes an illegal law, it will be left up to the people who execute it to choose what they should do. Currently, it seems that the most important institutions in Israel: the ISA ("Shin Bet"), military and police will take the court's side in this, but we truly don't know what will happen. If they do, we will probably see new laws just being ignored, until the coalition backs down to initiate a new election, which Netanyahu is expected to lose. There is also a possibility of physical violence, as president Isaac Herzog warned: "whoever thinks that a real civil war, one of human life, is a boundary we will not cross, has no idea". How this would go, God only knows.
Truly, these are dangerous times. We might even see Israel finally get a constitution out of this...
Never was
Hii can the Dutch election be covered in a video?
What is interesting about the Dutch election then?
@@Eikenhorst the senate will have a pretty big change up right now due to the farmer protests
@@maansmokers Yea, probably, it probably will be hard for parliament to pass anything slightly non-trivial. There just isn't really a majority for anything in both chambers. Which I guess is fine if you weren't expecting solutions to the current problems. But I would wait for the new senate to be officially elected before it really becomes a topic that is interesting, if it is ever at all.
The next parliamentary elections are more interesting, I am expecting record breaking formation sessions in the negative sense, and potentially we might see a first with new elections after failed negotiations.
@@Eikenhorst I guess we’ll see! Would be nice to see something like this be talked about on TLDR though!
There aren't really any problems to talk about in the Netherlands, except for the extremely high taxes and closed-off educational system.
Its never been one, its a military junta
It is impossible to understand the reform as one that only concerns relations between authorities. It is impossible to understand this without understanding the additional steps that Netanyahu is promoting alongside the legal laws: legislation concerning the takeover of the public media, the takeover of the National Library, the takeover of the Central Bureau of Statistics, the abolition of the power of the legal advisor to the government, the impeachment of senior police officials who did not agree to suppress demonstrations, the introduction of religious laws that restrict the secular, his government's support for the burning of an Arab village, the fact that the Minister of National Security supports Jewish terrorism and has been convicted of terrorist activity
And I forgot to mention: the cancellation of the reasonableness standard, which greatly reduces the ability to supervise corruption or discrimination in the law
The National Library takeover was averted when the primary donor threatened to pull all its funding ;)
Straight up, this is not a reform it's a coup.
NO .......................
That's a pretty big gamble, are you sure you wanna do that, Ben?
The main issue I see it is that no side agrees with each other. The coalition are blitzing policies without much thought, the opposition in general don't want to sit and talk it out and instead simply demand the coalition to stop, the judges has too much power and president Hertzog tries his best to calm everyone down but doesn't have the power. The issue was always that the people in charge hate each other so much they refuse to negotiate properly... Everyone are at fault for this mess and a proper constitution is needed.
The "Hardim" don't support constitution.
They will never agree
Isn't the UK also way less in checks and balances too? No judicial reviews etc?
Western democracies have sovereignty of the parliament and many can ignore or override the courts.
Somehow when it come to Israel it means its not a democracy anymore. Thats what happens when you have a noisy left minority that cant win elections.
Correct. Parliamentary supremacy means that technically, a simple majority of Parliament could decide on anything, including making Rishi Sunak dictator for life. With the lone exception that royal assent would be needed, so Charles could still veto it. Refusal of royal assent hasn't happened for over three centuries by now, but it is there theoretically as a safeguard against a simple majority of parliament doing what it wants.
The United States of America has a written Constitution.
Nowhere in that written Constitution does it say that the Judiciary has the authority to interpret the law.
The US Supreme Court arrogated that right to itself in the case Marbury v. Madison. Previously, it was assumed - but unwritten - that the US President would interpret the law.
There have been a couple of times that US Presidents have just told the US Supreme Court to go take a hike.
So.... even with a written Constitution... you need to be careful what you put into it - and what you leave out.
Both the government and the supreme court sh1ts on the rights and freedoms of the people who try to survive in this labour camp country.
Labour camp country? It has freedom of speech you can leave and enter the country you have elections.
Not a labor camp of a country, an Avocado Republic that has citizens quite content with being subjects, and indifferent to their personal freedoms being taken away one after the other. One key symptom of this is traffic throughout the country, not only in urban areas. This is a very small country in which the perennially appalling public transportation is slower than walking! Citizens of democratic countries are quite defensive of their freedom of movement, but Israelis seem to be okay with wasting their lives in preventable traffic jams and with being "under arrest" without accusation for hours on end, in a city bus that barely has air-conditioning and no toilet.
The Supreme Court which is supposed to uphold the rights and freedoms of the people, denies access to anyone but the rich and the very rich. The recourse fee is out of reach of most salary earners, and in any case the Court works on timetables incompatible with ordinary Humans' lifespan. With a people absolutely unable to organize for anything, let alone class action, almost nobody can make one's case in court. The left-wing NGO's such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, will not take up the case of anyone who is not either Arab or LGBTetc. As to Labor, well, yeah, Israel tries, clumsily, to take a leaf off the US strategy, which is attracting talent from the wider World, but it doesn't see fit to reward this to its just value. Wages are as low as the taxes are high. Cost of living is the OECD's highest, in large part because a numerous and willfully unproductive Ultra-Orthodox portion of the population needs to be housed and fed, and also imposes a 25-35% premium on the retail price of foodstuffs, with Kosher regulations mandated for everyone, and this with or without their parties being part of an ever-ephemeral governmental coalition.
Israel has roughly three societies, secular-orthodox, ultra-orthodox and arabs, each with its own educational system, their own laws. Many of the showoff laws made by orthodox and ultra-orthodox politicians, will be dismissed by the seculars, for example, in 2019 Rafi Perez became the minister of education and as an orthodox politician adviced schools to look for LGBTQ students, no one in the secular aducation system listened to him, but the other aducational systems were already doing it anyways, it was said to awake outrage
Seculars are not Orthodox.
@@Rolando_Cueva Yeah but we live togather and are under the same laws
I remember Bibi in the nineties claiming Iran was six months away from a nuke. Why would a man under criminal investigation want the power to appoint judges? Israel can only be a democracy if Palestinians could also vote, if the occupation ended this would cease to be an issue, as it is they are all ruled by Bibi.
Arabs are voting Isreal citizens.
However, most Palestinians don't want to gain voting rights in Isreal. They want a separate country.
They legit can vote in israeli elections
why would israel give palastinians a right to vote if 1) they're not citizens 2) they don't want to be citizens?
Israel doens't have complete control over the west bank like people think. it's not a formal part of the country thus the people that live there (if they didn't already have an israeli citizenship) are not a part of the country and are not citizens
@@Daniel-yp6mm West bank and Gaza resident can not vote unless they are Jewish.
As far there will be no Netanyahu version Java
"Is Israel still a democracy?" trick question! it was never a democracy to begin with :)
First point is misleading, it is composed by 9 members 4 of which are from the knesset/government and that requires at least 6/9 approval.
@@thotslayer9914 I'm on vacation 😎
@@thotslayer9914 we can always go to Mars... 🔴
Choosing such a man as pm gives me a very uneasy feeling about Israil.
*When it became a country after WWII* ?.
It was a country long before that my friend. 🤨
Worst prime minister ever
I struggle to understand how Israel of all countries could become so far right-wing, with its people's history in Germany.
I would not call this government “right wing” not just that but this government has been in power in the past.
It was democratically elected twice and lost one election in between the two times it won.
From what I personally seen Israel’s so called right wing is of equal standing to Americas moderate parties.
In all honesty when looking back at history most nations had been right wing nations. Left wing didn’t become popular til the start of the cold war.
Cause it's bullshit, and unlike in Nazi Germany, Jews are not walking around and slaughtering Arabs in Judea and Samaria, or spread propaganda about them, or boycott their businesses, or rape their women...... wait - you think they do, don't you? Leftist brainwashing media has done a solid job.
@@vl3005 I've been to both Israel and Palestine and apart from the rape, the Israelis did everything you just mentioned. And it seems their propaganda is working quite well.
@@vl3005 Actually there is video evidence showing Israeli police unjustly beating an innocent Palestinian man.
The officer in question was later imprisoned and lost his job. That said if the incident was not recorded the officer might of got off scot free.
That said Israels general public treat Palestinians as equals and treat them fairly. It’s just the law enforcement that people need to be weary of.
@@darth3911 Tell me, do you know which parties make up the Israelian government right now? That the Likud and especially its coalition partner parties range from moderate right-wing to extreme right-wing is a matter of fact, not of opinion. And of course they were democratically elected. Wanna guess who else was democratically elected?
I am not sure if it is such a bad idea to give to majority the most power.
Well it is a great idea but what they propose is a 61 majority that would mean the government could pass pretty much any law they want but the majority should be something like 70 or 75 so they would need to convince knesset members from the opposition.
The Germans democratically voted in Hitler's government....
and if the majority vote to take the right to vote away from the other 49%? Under this law, the government can do basically anything, and no one can stop them. That isn't a functioning democracy.
It is a terrible idea, If the coup attempt succeed they'll be able to cancel the election. They'll be able to suppress votes of sectors that oppose them. Once the separation of powers has been breached democracy is a meaningless theatre.
You wrote it correctly "most power" but not unlimited power. That's a fundamental piece of a functioning modern democracy. Minorities are in need of legal protection otherwise new laws can hide discrimination by the majority. What is going on in Israel isn't so different from how people of color were handled by the state in the 60's in the USA. Basically Israel dialed the clock back with at least 60 years.
Can we have a day where you report unimportant new. Like please world.
So, who checks the Supreme Court?
Wrong question, it never was, at least post Netanyahu.