The timing is far from ideal. Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann arrived in Israel on Monday for a two-day visit. The FDP politician wants to do what would have been a natural gesture just a few weeks ago: visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Tel Aviv the traveling exhibition “Rosenburg” about NS continuities in the Federal Ministry of Justice of the West German post-war period – and meet his Israeli counterpart Yariv Levin. However, the constitutionally liberal Bushman would have every difficulty in giving a plausible explanation for his meeting with the Likud politician. Because Levin is at the center of a storm.
Israel’s justice minister is the main driving force behind the new right-wing religious government’s judicial reform, which critics see as an attack on democracy, even as a “coup d’état”. For weeks there have been violent demonstrations across the country against Levin’s plan to disempower the Supreme Court – and the day of Bushman’s arrival is again one of the culmination points of this protest.
There is already talk of “civil war”.
As in the previous week, a whole bunch of groups and parties called for strikes and nationwide demonstrations, and Israel’s opposition mobilized as early as Monday morning. Parents and school children gather in many cities at eight in the morning for the protest march. Other demonstrators are blocking roads, highways and even the homes of various politicians from the ruling coalition. The highlight in the afternoon is a large demonstration in front of the parliament building in Jerusalem, in which around 60,000 people take part.
The government wants to oust Israel’s Supreme Court — a “coup d’état,” say angry critics.
(Photo: Anthony Baratier/Wiki Commons)
Inside the Knesset, the first reading on parts of the judicial reform is on the agenda that day. The debates have heated up, and the government and opposition are now accusing each other of unleashing a “civil war.” Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, who warned of a “social collapse” a week ago and made an attempt at mediation, seems increasingly helpless. In a speech on Sunday evening, he insisted that the country’s current crisis could be resolved “in a relatively short time frame”. But all his calls for dialogue have so far remained without consequences.
Politicians from the government camp are also reacting with increasing irritation to criticism from outside. So far, this has mainly come from the most important ally in Washington, where US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have already issued warnings about Israeli judicial reform. Well laid Tom Nides, US Ambassador to Israel, in an interview followed by calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “put the brakes on” this project. Amichai Chikli, the minister responsible for diaspora, gave the answer: Nides should “mind his own business”.
Buschmann says that a visit is important, especially in “turbulent times”.
The fact that Germany’s Justice Minister Buschmann is now paying his respects to the Israeli government has caused resentment in Berlin. According to a report by Mirror Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock advised against ministerial trips to Israel in the cabinet, at least in the current situation. There is still no common line in the federal government on how to deal with the new right-wing government in Israel. Justice Minister Buschmann, however, did not see any reason to back away from his plans.
The FDP politician explained before he left that he had planned his visit for a long time, but had to postpone it because of Corona. With the trip he now wants to make a contribution “to expanding our partnership, to strengthening the rule of law and liberal democracy”. This is particularly important in the “turbulent times we are experiencing”. When asked how the liberal constitutional lawyer Buschmann actually assesses the planned restructuring of the judiciary in Israel and the threatening restriction of the democratic separation of powers, the Federal Ministry of Justice reacted evasively.
Planned are “political talks” with the Israeli counterpart Levin and “an exchange on legal policy issues that are currently being discussed in Israel and Germany,” said a spokesman on Monday. Incidentally, they do not want to “anticipate” the talks scheduled for Tuesday.