As the dust from the recent Israeli elections settles, it appears that the next government will be formed by a right-wing coalition led by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Judicial reform was a dramatic wedge issue in the campaign, with some political parties publishing blueprints for sweeping change, others vociferously defending the status quo, and all of them firmly asserting that Israel’s very democracy was at stake. As the new government emerges, it’s worth addressing some common misconceptions about this significant, complex, and often-misunderstood debate.
Though it might seem a modern partisan power struggle, the judicial-reform debate has much older roots. Founded 74 years ago, Israel developed its system of law and governance in an ad hoc fashion, and generally in crisis periods. Political fragmentation, defense against constant existential threats, and the lack of a written constitution left a power vacuum that the Israeli court system has slowly and intentionally filled without a popular mandate to do so.
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