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January 28, 2011
Questions about democracy
Rights groups say proposed legislation fosters delegitimization.
DAVID E. MILLER THE MEDIA LINE
A slew of anti-democratic legislation due to be voted on by the Israeli parliament in the coming months will undermine the country’s democratic values and human rights, an Israeli human rights organization has warned.
Debbie Gild-Hayo, director of policy advocacy at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), told a news conference that much of the legislation was unlikely to win Knesset approval and, in some cases, merely echoed existing legislation. She said she was most worried by legislation that had the backing of Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government. More worryingly, she said, the atmosphere in the current Knesset discouraged open debate and deterred moderate and left-wing members from openly questioning the legislation.
“People are politically afraid to support organizations of the left,” said Gild-Hayo, referring to the MKs who would normally be expected to oppose such legislation. “The big problem is delegitimization,” she said.
ACRI’s concerns come as polls show large segments of Israel’s population don’t support the values of democracy and equality. The 2010 Israeli Democracy Index, released by the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute think-tank last November, found that 86 percent of Jewish respondents believed that critical decisions for the state should be taken by a Jewish majority. More than half of all Jews maintained that the state should encourage Arabs to emigrate.
The study also found a greater willingness among Jews who define themselves as “right-wing” to wave democratic principles in favor of law and public order. The statement “Israel’s overall situation would be much better if there were less attention paid to the principles of democracy and greater focus on observing the law and on public order” was supported by 60 percent of self-declared Jewish right-wingers, as opposed to 49 percent of left-wingers.
Gild-Hayo said she was particularly concerned about legislation endorsed by the government targeting Israel’s Arab citizens.
The so-called Nakba Bill proposed by MK Alex Miller of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, would deny government funds to public institutions or organizations that mark the Nakba – the Arabic word meaning “Catastrophe” that Palestinians call Israel’s Independence Day. Miller’s law passed the first reading and will soon be discussed by the Knesset constitution committee ahead of its final legislation.
To be enacted as law, a bill must be authorized by the relevant Knesset committee and pass three readings, or votes, in the parliament’s plenum.
The Loyalty Oath Bill, endorsed by the government last October, bars a foreigner from becoming an Israeli citizen unless he or she pledges loyalty to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Proposed by MK David Rotem of Yisrael Beiteinu, the law has been stalled due to the objections of ultra-Orthodox parties, who don’t want their followers to have to swear allegiance to a Zionist state.
A similar bill tabled by MK Zvulun Orlev of Habayit Hayehudi amends Israel’s penal code, setting a prison term for people who call for eliminating “the existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.” Another government-backed bill would allow small communities to bar people who “fail to meet the fundamental views of the community.”
Other legislation with government backing would make people supporting a boycott of Israel subject to criminal prosecution and forced to pay reparation of 30,000 shekels, without the plaintiff proving damages.
But Abraham Diskin, a political scientist from Hebrew University, said he makes a distinction between legislation that is likely to be made law and poses a real threat to democracy and private members bills that stand no chance of wining approval at all and are used by MKs to attract attention.
Legislation backed by the government has the greatest chance of winning coalition support and final approval in the Knesset. In fact, most of the controversial legislation now being weighed is private member bills proposed by individual MKs.
The number of private member’s bills has sharply increased over the last 25 years. In the 11th Knesset, whose term began in 1984, 721 such bills were proposed. By the 15th Knesset, the number had proliferated to more than 4,000. However, less than five percent of these bills were actually enacted, rendering them more a political statement than anything else.
“Some of the most problematic bills simply won’t pass,” Diskin said. “They will be blocked by moderate ministers, before even reaching the plenum.”
But ACRI’s Gild-Hayo said the issue wasn’t which bills would pass but the political environment they create. “They add to an atmosphere of delegitimization of left-wing or human rights groups,” she said.
Diskin said he regarded legislation seeking to deny people citizenship because of “disloyalty” as extremely worrying, but he said such bills were the ones least likely to win Knesset approval. Other legislation, however, such as a proposal by MK Zeev Elkin of Likud to require nongovernment organizations to make public the extent to which they receive funding from foreign governments, are legitimate.
“There is a similar law in the U.S. demanding organizations that receive foreign funding to register as ‘foreign agents.’” he said.
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