OPINION - Netanyahu’s power grab and extremist agenda are deepening Israel’s crisis

By Imran Khalid

-The author is a geostrategic analyst and freelance columnist on international affairs

ISTANBUL (AA) - It would not have been much to expect of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to take a long, hard look at themselves after Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which took place on their watch.

One of the questions they should have asked themselves is how the divisions in Israeli society that they sowed during the months before the attack contributed to the lack of preparedness for such a cataclysmic event.

For the first few months of the war, the shock of Hamas’ surprise attack slowed down the main culprits among those who were cynically and relentlessly working to weaken checks and balances and undermine governance and transparency in Israel.

However, in recent months, Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Simcha Rothman, chair of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee—two of the chief architects of the assault on judicial independence—have renewed those efforts with unfortunate vigor.

In one of the more public acts of trying to delegitimize the judiciary, Netanyahu, Deputy Prime Minister Yariv Levin, and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana boycotted last month’s swearing-in ceremony of Justice Isaac Amit as Supreme Court president. This is the first time in Israel’s history that the heads of the executive and the legislative branches have shown such extreme disrespect to the legally elected head of the judiciary -- only because they wanted to install someone they considered more “convenient” for the government.

If that was not bad enough, far-right demonstrators protested against the new president of the Supreme Court outside President Isaac Herzog’s residence, where the ceremony was held, in an effort to intimidate Amit and pressure the judiciary into greater compliance with the government. Amit’s appointment ended more than a year’s standoff between the judiciary and the politicians, leaving the Supreme Court with no permanent president due to the government’s unscrupulous efforts to change the rules of electing the top judge in the country to suit its political agenda.

But failing to appoint a Supreme Court president of its liking has not deterred the government from its drive to control the appointment of all judges in Israel. While the nation remains focused on the fate of hostages in Gaza, Yariv Levin and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar have pushed through sweeping judicial reforms, expanding political control over judicial appointments and limiting the High Court’s authority to overturn legislation. Their measures are not dissimilar to the ones that sparked massive antigovernment protests in 2023. This indicates that, in their brutish march to undermine Israeli democracy, entrench their power, and ensure Netanyahu’s corruption trial is never concluded, they have learned nothing from the damage they inflicted on national unity and security.

- Seeking to remove attorney general

No one has faced greater pressure from Netanyahu’s administration than Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. The far-right simply cannot stand her devotion to the rule of law, accountability, and transparency in government. The attorney general has blocked the appointment of unqualified candidates to senior civil service positions. She also continues to remind the government of its responsibility to appoint a state commission to investigate the failures of Oct. 7 because it is necessary to learn from the catastrophic mistakes made. And she generally reminds ministers that they need to operate within the boundaries of the law.

The response by ministers has been a concerted effort to fire Baharav-Miara and replace her with someone more convenient for their purposes. Ronen Bar, head of the internal security agency Shin Bet, is also walking with a target on his back. He is another whom this extremist government would like to get rid of. Bar admitted his responsibility for the failures of Oct. 7 and that he should leave this sensitive job when the time is right, but Netanyahu’s people are now trying to hasten his departure because the organization he leads is investigating severe breaches of security within the prime minister’s office. Again, they seek to replace him with someone willing to ignore alleged lawbreaking within Netanyahu’s inner circle, which has compromised national security.

And then there are the attempts to damage civil society organizations by singling out those whose activities concentrate on promoting peace or human rights, especially those of minorities (mainly Palestinians), those who live in the Occupied Territories, and women and workers.

According to a new bill proposed by a ministerial committee, the government will be able to tax donations from foreign governments to domestic nonprofits at a rate of 80%, while also instructing that courts need not consider petitions by groups “primarily financed by a foreign political entity.” Unlike right-wing groups, which are largely funded by wealthy private donors, peace and human rights organizations rely more on institutional funding. This measure represents yet another attempt to silence them.

All these measures add up to a crude and barely concealed attempt to diminish the oversight of government activities by the courts, civil society, and even the media. This paves the way for Israel to become a democracy in name only. It also opens the way for the government to further deprive the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories of any rights and access to those organizations that could help them stand up to the arbitrary nature of the occupation and further discriminatory acts against those who are citizens of Israel. The idea of Israel as a democracy was always flawed in our eyes, but now even that pretense is disappearing. Under Netanyahu, Israel is veering toward authoritarianism, fueled by religious extremists whose policies not only oppress Palestinians but also erode the institutions that once safeguarded democratic governance.

*Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Anadolu's editorial policy.