Best thing that ever happened to the Left – but not yet good enough to save Israel

A poll by the Israeli Democracy Institute found 66% of Israel's oppose the government's plans for judicial overhaul.

But the protest wasn’t about judicial reform, which many Israelis support in some form. Judicial independence was the catalyst, but the democracy movement was really spurred by the fact that the men leading the reform wanted to initiate many other terrifying policies against women and minorities. Israelis know that that the Supreme Court is the only power standing in their way.

Thus the resistance was born, and the liberal camp finally awoke from its slumber and began to fight for its values in a manner we have never seen before.

The majority of protestors were secular liberal Israelis who often define themselves by what they are not. In fact, Hebrew dictionaries define hiloni (secular) as “one who is not religious, or doesn’t observe the mitzvot of Judaism”.

The past 12 weeks taught liberal Israelis that they believe with no less conviction than a Haredi believes in Torah. The liberal camp took a huge leap towards breaking the stereotype that goes all the way back to the first meeting of the Hazon Ish with Ben Gurion, where he described secular Judaism as an “empty wagon” as opposed to the “full wagon” of the Haredim.

This was not just Israel’s democratic spring, it was also what journalist Anshel Pfeffer called a “secular uprising.” Secular, liberal, humanist values were delivered with the potency of an Orthodox Jew crying ‘“Adonai is King” in the final moments of Yom Kippur, desperate to save himself from the evil decree.

Over the past few months, a generation of Israelis who probably didn’t know the first thing about judge selection and the powers of the attorney-general have had the civics lesson of their lives, with colour, drama and action that no classroom could ever deliver.

They learned that to be a secular Israeli is to proudly embrace the Zionist flag and the Declaration of Independence. They learned that despite the many problems here, this was a place worth fighting for. Israel ranks as one of the happiest countries in the world because our lives are filled with meaning and purpose.

They were also reminded what it means to have a home, which is why Ein Li Eretz Acheret (I have no other country) became the anthem of the protest movement.

The threat of extremism also taught liberal Israelis how to make the case for democracy, not just in the streets, but in conversations that permeated almost every encounter, in a manner that no political issue has done for years,

Israelis now have a vocabulary for democracy. They understand the importance of checks and balances, freedom of speech, the right to protest, a free media, and an independent judiciary.

Not time to celebrate

While all of this is a significant victory for the Left in terms of its identity and ability to communicate its values to a wider audience, the brief respite gives no reason to celebrate.

The concrete outcomes of recent weeks are terrible for those who care about democratic values, oppose extremism and still want to see the dying two-state solution became a reality.

The Palestinian perspective

Perhaps one shouldn’t be surprised that these outcomes set back the quest for justice for Palestinians. The democracy protest was never about the Palestinians. Arab Israelis barely attended any protests to defend a supreme court they feel doesn’t defend them. 

While there were some Palestinian flags in the Tel Aviv protests, they were forbidden from the Jerusalem ones. On several occasions a single Palestinian flag in a sea of blue and white was violently confiscated.

Outside Israel, the democracy protests brought an extraordinary sight: Israeli and Palestinian flags waved in protest alongside one another. In Washington DC, where Bezalel Smotrich was visiting, and London, where Netanyahu visited, Palestinian solidarity groups and Israeli democracy supporters demonstrated in parallel, though separated by police, something that would have been unthinkable three months ago.

The real challenge for Israeli democracy

Ultimately, the greatest war on Israeli democracy is not how many MKs, judges or law professionals sit on the judge selection committee. The twin underlying problems are the lack of separation between religion and state and the failure to create a viable, autonomous Palestine.

The former empowers limitations on the freedom of women, the LGBT community and non-Orthodox Jews. The latter enables the military control of millions of Arabs and the continuous suppression of Palestinian rights in the name of security.

In today’s Israel, an end to both democratic threats seems as unlikely as the UIA inviting Arab MK Ayman Odeh to Australia for their next fundraising appeal.

So why not give up? Why keep protesting for democracy?

In response to this question, Israeli author David Grossman once said: “Each time I go to a demonstration or need to write a political article, I think of the man who stood for years and demonstrated against the Vietnam war in front of the White House. For years, every Friday, he stood there for his two hours, holding a sign. Eventually, a reporter approached him and, somewhat embarrassed, asked, 'Tell me, sir, you really think that you can change the world?' The man answered, 'No, I am just making sure that the world doesn't change me.' Sometimes, this is the most we can wish ourselves, at a twisted, distorted time such as this.”

At a time when no one knows whether any of the protests will change what fate has in store for the Zionist project, if nothing else, millions of Israelis will now be able to tell their children that in the moment of greatest crisis, they stood on the right side of history.

Photo: A demonstrator’s Israeli flag flies across a banner showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a protest (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)