Israeli Democracy Is Fighting for Its Life*

Yuval Noah Harari
Historian and philosopher

Just before we went to press, Israel suffered a large-scale terrorist attack by Hamas. Therefore, the title of this article, regrettably, also takes on another meaning. We will return to the new war in the Middle East in the next issue. But we cannot help but remark that the atrocities experienced on 7 October can be understood only in the framework of the Israeli oppressive policy towards the Palestinian people.

To understand events in Israel, there is just one question to ask: What limits the power of the government? Robust democracies rely on a whole system of checks and balances. But Israel lacks a constitution, an upper house in the parliament, a federal system, or any other check on government power except one – the Supreme Court. This Monday [July 24, 2023, Transl. Note], the Netanyahu coalition plans to pass the first in a series of laws that will neutralize the Israeli Supreme Court. If the government succeeds, it will gain unlimited power.

The Netanyahu coalition has already disclosed its intention to pass laws and pursue policies that will discriminate against Arabs, women, LGBTQ people and secular citizens. Once the Supreme Court is out of the way, nothing will remain to stop the coalition. In such a situation, the government could also rig future elections, for example by banning Arab parties from participating in the elections – a step already proposed in the past by coalition members. Israel will still hold elections, but these elections will become an authoritarian ritual rather than a free democratic contest.

Government members openly brag about their intentions. They explain that since they won Israel’s last elections, it means they can now do anything they want. Like other authoritarian forces, the Israeli government doesn’t understand what democracy means. It thinks that democracy is majority dictatorship, and that those who win democratic elections are thereby granted unrestricted authority. In fact, democracy means freedom and equality for all. Democracy is a system that guarantees all people certain liberties, which even the majority cannot take away.

The establishment of a dictatorship in Israel would have grave consequences not only for Israeli citizens. The ruling coalition in Israel is led by messianic zealots who believe in an ideology of Jewish Supremacy. This ideology calls to annex the Occupied Palestinian Territories to Israel without granting citizenship to the Palestinians, and ultimately dreams of building a new Jewish Temple instead of the Al Aqsa Mosque. These zealots now command one of the most formidable military machines in the world, armed with nuclear bombs and advanced cyber-weapons. For decades Prime Minister Netanyahu warned the world about the dangers posed by a fundamentalist regime armed with nuclear capabilities. Now Netanyahu is establishing exactly such a regime in Israel. A fundamentalist dictatorship in Israel could set fire to the entire Middle East, with consequences that will reverberate far beyond the region. It would be incredibly stupid of Israel to do something like that, but as we learned from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we should never underestimate human stupidity.

The good news is that in recent months a powerful resistance movement has emerged to save Israeli democracy. Rejecting the ideology of Jewish Supremacy, and connecting to ancient traditions of Jewish tolerance, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been resisting the Netanyahu government in every nonviolent way we know. Since Friday, more than 10,000 army reservists – including hundreds of air force pilots, cyberwarfare experts, and commanders of elite units – have publicly declared that they will not serve a dictatorship, and that they will therefore suspend their service if the judiciary overhaul continues.

In a country that emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust, and that has faced existential risks for decades, the army has always been off-limits in political controversies. This is no longer the case. Former chiefs of the Israeli army, air force, and security services have publicly called on soldiers to stop serving. The Netanyahu government tries to depict this as a military coup, but it is the exact opposite. Israeli soldiers aren’t taking up arms to oppose the government – they are laying down their arms. They explain that their contract is with the Israeli democracy, and once democracy expires – so does their contract.

The feeling that the social contract has been broken has led universities, labor unions, hi-tech companies and other private businesses to threaten going on strike if the government continues with its antidemocratic power-grab. It has also caused investors around the world to pull money out of Israel. Worse may lay ahead. Government members call the demonstrators and army reservists “traitors”, and demand that force be used to crash the opposition. Israelis worry that we might be days away from civil war.

But the hundreds of thousands of Israelis that are protesting in the streets feel we have no choice. It is our duty to ourselves, to Jewish tradition, and to humanity to prevent the rise of a Jewish Supremacist dictatorship. We are standing in the streets, because we cannot do otherwise. Please stand with us, and help us save Israeli democracy.

*Abridged version of the article that was originally published on The Financial Times on July 23 2023