Podcast “important today”
The torn country: Israel’s democracy is on the brink
Mourners at a funeral for the youngest victims of attacks in Israel
© Ilia Yefimovich / DPA
“Israel has always been a powder keg,” says Middle East correspondent Raschel Blufarb. A new wave of violence with assassinations and deadly raids is sweeping the country, while hundreds of thousands of Israelis are protesting against Netanyahu’s right-wing government.
“Society in Israel is deeply divided,” says Israel correspondent Raschel Blufarb in the 455th episode “important today.” This is shown by the fact that it took five elections before a government was formed at all. And this government around Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has moved dangerously far to the right.
The new Israeli Minister of Justice, Jariv Levin, presented plans for judicial reform at the beginning of January. After that, Parliament is to be given the right to overrule decisions of the Supreme Court. This could allow a government majority to pass laws that the court has rejected as unconstitutional. “If that actually happens, a simple majority in the Knesset will be enough to enact a law,” Raschel Blufarb says in the podcast.
Hundreds of thousands protest against judicial reform in Israel
“I find this judicial reform to be quite worrying. Many see it as the end of democracy.” Those are legitimate fears – Raschel Blufarb thinks. “I just don’t see that happening tomorrow,” says the correspondent. Hundreds of thousands have been taking to the streets for weeks – against the overturning of the separation of powers. This gives hope that at least this reform will not come. According to Raschel Blufarb, these protests come from the middle of society. But in Israeli society you can feel a deep rift: “Many are behind the government. But there are also center and left who do not want this government – and especially the extreme right and religious forces.”
The Israel Powder Keg: “An Explosive Conflict Without a Political Solution”
“Israel is a democracy,” says Raschel Blufarb, but the attempt for people of different origins and religions to live together, the different ideologies, currents and opposites made Israel a powder keg. A new wave of violence only escalated last weekend. Several people were killed in two attacks by Palestinians in Jerusalem. Just a day earlier, nine Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army in a Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
“It’s a very explosive situation without a political solution,” said Raschel Blufarb in an interview with “today important” host Michel Abdollahi. And the two-state solution was “crazy far away”. “What in the current situation “What is very important is de-escalation. And under this government it doesn’t look like it at the moment,” says the Israel correspondent. “It was a wave of violence. And the next one is sure to come.” The question is how much Netanyahu will allow himself to be swayed by these right-wing forces, Blufarb believes, and whether a political rapprochement will prevent further violence.
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