Growing list of laws eroding Israel’s democratic fabric

Published: 20 November 2017

Last updated: 4 March 2024

AKIVA ELDAR From the withdrawal of tax exemptions for Amnesty to the ethics code for universities or the Muezzin law aimed at mosques, the pattern is spreading

Israeli right’s anti-democratic laws penetrate everywhere (Al-Monitor)
The takeover of the corporation of the State of Israel is being executed in incremental fashion, using legislation and sanctions, making it a little less democratic, a little more Jewish. The plethora of laws and sanctions make a mockery of Israeli democracy. Viewed separately, each of these initiatives is a yawn; taken together, this accumulation of legislation should make every Israeli lose sleep.

Following are some examples:

The “loyalty in culture” bill aims to authorise the Ministry of Culture to withhold funding from cultural institutions for other than professional reasons. Regev is conducting a crusade against institutions she deems disloyal to the state and its values by curtailing their funding.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon is working to withdraw the tax exemption of Amnesty International. Israel will thus join the dubious elite club of governments that persecute human rights activists, such as Turkey, Thailand, Russia and Iran.
Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan is working to formulate sanctions against entities that call for a boycott of Israel or of settlements.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett is seeking authorisation to ban certain speakers from appearing before school students. Bennett has acted to withhold funding from the play A Parallel Time by the Arabic-language Al-Midan Theatre and to ban the novel Borderlife by Dorit Rabinyan from the literature matriculation exam.

AND SEE
Israel's Attorney General paves way for legalisation of at least 13 West Bank outposts (Haaretz)
Mendelblit's precedent-setting opinion states that land owned by individual Palestinians can be expropriated to create an access road to an outpost even if the road is to be used only by Jewish settlers

Barghouti: Israeli settlement activity doubled after election of Trump (Middle-East Eye)
According to human rights organisations, settlement activities have reached an unprecedented level since the beginning of this year