Former attorney general says Israel risks becoming a dictatorship

Former Supreme Court justice and attorney general Menachem “Meni” Mazuz says Israel risks becoming a dictatorship due to the government’s judicial overhaul.

Asked if he believes that Israel is on the “brink of dictatorship,” Mazuz tells Channel 12 that he “completely agrees.”

“Israeli democracy was always handicapped, it was lacking, it was a democracy with a weak foundation,” Mazuz says. Israel does not have a constitution, a bicameral legislature, an executive office independent of the legislative branch, or other checks found in other democracies.

Israel’s democratic system “rests on the professional independence of the judicial system and if that independence is harmed — there won’t be anything left,” he says.

“We’d be left with a governing system completely controlled by the [majority coalition], and that is the simple definition of a dictatorship,” he says.