Israeli democracy

‎Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut (C) and other judges on the court, ahead of a hearing on March 14, 2019. (Hadas Parush/ Flash90)

May 28, 2019, 11:14 am

Israel is already in a constitutional crisis, leading law scholar warns

Suzie Navot is not against parliamentary immunity and wants the Knesset to be able to override the Supreme Court. But she’s also worried about a creeping erosion of democracy

By Raphael Ahren

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at an event marking one year since the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, on May 14, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

May 23, 2019, 5:38 am

Adios, democracy? How Netanyahu’s proposed legislation would damage rule of law

An Israeli constitutional expert says that as the PM seeks to protect himself from prosecution, his suggested changes to the Basic Laws would be a human rights catastrophe

By Nati Yefet

Illustrative: Israeli Supreme Court justices at a hearing on March 13, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

May 17, 2019, 4:06 pm

It’s not the Supreme Court’s job to fix the Nation-State law

With no constititonal framework to establish how the branches of government work together, Basic Laws are of the people

By Or Bassok and Ruth Gavison

Likud MKs David Bitan (L) and David Amsalem attend a Knesset committee meeting on September 21, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

April 19, 2019, 10:34 am

6,644 bills, 5,756 queries: Was 20th Knesset a tale of quantity over quality?

No other democratic parliament in the world is close to Israel when it comes to the number of laws proposed by private members. This is not a good thing

By Dr. Chen Friedberg, Avital Fridman and Niv Shoval

Likud billboard on the side of the busy Ayalon highway in Tel Aviv, February 3, 2019. The title reads 'Netanyahu, in a different league.' (Courtesy)

February 7, 2019, 3:08 pm

From billboards to webcast, Netanyahu taps his inner Trump for campaign

PM increasingly emulates American leader’s populist messaging while parlaying his popularity here, but risks alienating Democrats and others

By Aron Heller

A woman reads a newspaper while floating in the Dead Sea, May 20, 2017. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

October 24, 2018, 5:07 am

Come for the falafel, stay for the poll; MK says give Jewish tourists the vote

Lawmaker Bezalel Smotrich has a radical idea for bridging the divide between Israel and the Diaspora: let Jewish tourists who spend two weeks in the country help elect the Knesset

By Raphael Ahren

Then-opposition leader Tzipi Livni speaks during the plenary session of the opening day of the winter session at the Knesset, on October 15, 2018. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

October 16, 2018, 1:11 am

Opposition leader: PM sowing internal hatred, eroding Israel’s democracy

Tzipi Livni says Netanyahu pitting brother against brother for ‘cynical political’ purposes. ‘I hope this is the last Knesset during which he is prime minister’

By TOI staff

President Reuven Rivlin (L) and Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein at the opening of the Knesset winter sitting, October 15, 2018. (Knesset)

October 15, 2018, 6:59 pm

Rivlin warns infighting is greater threat to Israel than nukes or terrorism

At Knesset, president says internal divisions in which people are tied to rigid political camps could ‘tear flag’

By TOI staff and Raoul Wootliff

Illustrative: Israelis wave Israeli flags as they parade around Jerusalem's Old City on May 24, 2017, to commemorate Jerusalem Day, marking the reunification of the city following the Six Day War of 1967. (AFP PHOTO / Menahem KAHANA)

July 26, 2018, 7:40 pm

Jewish? Democratic? Nation-state law raises questions over Israel’s purpose

While critics accuse the government of denying the existence of the Arab minority, others say newly adopted legislation merely states the obvious

By Charles Dunst

July 16, 2018, 2:31 pm

Shuki Friedman

Is it time to do away with Tisha B’Av?

Israel has evolved into an economic and military superpower; what must we mourn?

July 16, 2018, 12:14 pm

Naomi Chazan

Israel doesn’t need a nation-state bill

20% of Israel’s population is not Jewish, and the democracy of the Declaration of Independence includes them

July 9, 2018, 3:31 pm

Nancy Strichman

No vote, no voice

Denying political representation to over half a million Haredi women in Israel is unacceptable in 2018

MK Rachel Azaria speaking at a panel discussion at the Schecter Institute on April 30, 2018 concerning the need for Israel to still find its' Jewish identity. (Eyal Weiss/Schecter Institute of Jewish Studies)

May 1, 2018, 6:59 pm

Event meant to build bridges between Israel and Diaspora goes up in flames

A panel discussion hosted by JTS and the Schechter Institute on the religious divide between American Jewry and Israel becomes a microcosm of the widening rift

By Tracy Frydberg

Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella speaks at the Hebrew University's Minerva Center for Human Rights, April 9, 2018 (Bruno Charbit)

April 19, 2018, 3:30 pm

Without an independent judiciary, Israel’s cherished democracy will be at risk

In a lecture in Jerusalem last week, the senior judge on Canada’s Supreme Court, who was born in a DP camp after much of her family died in Treblinka, issued an alarm call

By Rosalie Silberman Abella