What is Going On in Israel's Courts?
Israel is often held up as a bastion of democracy in the Middle East. It is a parliamentary democracy that has very close ties to the U.S. and the rest of the Western world.
Yet something is brewing in Israel that threatens that status.
Tens of thousands of citizens are demonstrating outside of the Knesset because of proposals that threaten constitutional democracy in Israel. Recently I have written in this newsletter how in the UK, the executive branch of government is pushing against the judiciary and thereby disrupting the balance of powers inherent in the constitution. In Israel lawmakers are taking that to the extreme by attempting to prohibit the courts from ruling against the executive and the legislature, and insisting that they should have the power to appoint judges.
It is the sort of action that you might expect to be taken by a petty dictatorship so why is Israel wandering down this path?