In a text entitled Israel, the agony of a democracy, written on the occasion of the updated reissue of his work, published in 2013, In the name of the temple. Israel and the coming to power of Messianic Jews, journalist and author Charles Enderlin defends the thesis of an illiberal offensive led by Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultraorthodox and messianic Zionist allies on the State of Israel.
Returning methodically to the laws adopted by the Israeli Prime Minister since 2009, the Franco-Israeli, long-time France 2 correspondent in Jerusalem, denounces the “regime change” desired by the current coalition in power, notably through the controversial reform of the court of Justice.
Denounced by a large part of the Israeli population, who have demonstrated every week since January 2023, this reform intends to limit the powers of this body, and in particular its right to review the laws adopted by the Israeli Parliament – ??the Knesset – currently dominated by the he alliance formed by Netanyahu’s Likud and its ultra-Orthodox and nationalist-religious allies.
A necessity for some, a dangerous attack on the foundations of the rule of law for others – the economic and financial sectors are in dire straits – this reform deeply divides the Hebrew State. For Charles Enderlin, it all started with the surge of religious Zionists, after the evacuation of the Gaza settlements in 2005, approved by the Supreme Court and 60% of the Israeli population, according to a poll by the Democracy Institute.
Le Point: Do you think of judicial reform as the culmination of a process underway in the State of Israel, which you develop in your text The Agony of a Democracy?
Charles Enderlin: The coalition formed by Benjamin Netanyahu is aiming for regime change! I recount this process, Netanyahu’s progressive implementation of his nationalist ideology since 2009. He thus passed in 2018 the law defining Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people which discriminates against non-Jews.
On judicial reform, he has encountered problems along the way, but is not turning back: on March 25, for example, faced with reservists from special units who refused to serve the army, the Minister of Defense asked the unilateral suspension of the reform. Netanyahu, furious, fired him the next day, sparking huge protests. He then backpedaled and announced a suspension, which was seen as a victory.
But the Knesset has since resumed consideration of reforms… If they have cut the regime change laws, right now, for example, the big debate is about allowing facial recognition in public places, without judicial oversight . It is clear that we are moving towards an authoritarian regime.
Likud supporters justify justice reform by the precariousness of the Israeli state, which needs strong power…
Imagine France without the Constitution, without the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with an all-powerful Parliament, without the Senate, without the Council of State! This is the case of Israel which does not have a Constitution and has never adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Israeli regime is based on a one-chamber Parliament, elected by full proportional representation, and a legislature formed by a coalition of parties. The Supreme Court is the only counter-power. It assumed this role in 1999 by granting itself the power to examine the constitutionality of laws passed by the Knesset and, if necessary, to revoke them.
The coalition formed by Netanyahu last December wants to prohibit this high judicial body from any intervention in government decisions and in the legislative process according to the autocratic principle which it defines as follows: “By granting us the majority in Parliament, the people have given us the legitimacy of governing alone, without the interference of magistrates who are not elected. » They want to free themselves from judicial weight and legislate as they see fit without the control of judges.
What do you fear if they succeed?
The list is long. Religious, messianic Zionists want to be able to develop colonization throughout the West Bank, without judges defending the Palestinians’ right to property. The ultraorthodox also want to exempt all their young people from compulsory military service. They obtained almost full funding for their education system, without having the obligation to teach fundamental subjects.
Fifty percent of ultra-Orthodox men do not work and contribute very little to the country’s economy, while secular taxpayers are forced into military service – three years for men, two for women – and pay nine times more in taxes that the ultraorthodox… And the religious Zionists within the current government are openly homophobic, misogynistic and racist.
Betzalel Smotrich, the Minister of Finance, for example, demanded segregation in the maternity ward where his wife was to give birth “so that she would not be alongside an Arab woman whose infant will come and kill her child twenty years later”… On the other hand, the seculars ended up realizing, finally, that they could no longer be content with watching things happen, waiting for things to get better. It’s a real wake-up call, after letting the 2018 law pass, which was totally discriminatory, and which for me marks the beginning of the process of regime change put in place by Netanyahu.
It is also the end of the status quo. The Israeli government pretended to one day move towards an agreement with the Palestinians, and the international community pretended to accept it. But the government platform signed by all members of this coalition states in full: “The Jewish people have an exclusive and inalienable right to the land of Israel. The government will expand settlement everywhere, including in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). »
You do not hesitate to talk about apartheid, a term considered controversial…
The term is only controversial for defenders of Israeli policy. There are two regimes in place in the West Bank. The settlers have all the rights granted by the Israeli state. The Palestinian population lives under a military regime which gives them no individual rights. Everything that enters and leaves this territory, goods and people, is under Israeli control. The Palestinian civil registry is controlled by Israel.
The existence of autonomy in the major cities of the West Bank is a sham. It only serves to encourage occupation. In 2021, Master Yehudit Karp, the former deputy attorney general, said: “Apartheid is the term used by international law to describe the kind of regime put in place in the occupied territories. »
On September 7, Tamir Pardo, the former head of Mossad, said: “Israeli mechanisms for controlling Palestinians, from restrictions on movement to placing them under martial law, while Jewish settlers in the territories occupied are governed by civil courts, are at the height of the old South Africa. » QED.
You describe an Israel divided into two opposing camps, “those who are Jewish first, and those who are Israeli first.” What possible future in such a context?
Israeli society is fractured in the most serious internal crisis since the creation of the state… To the point of becoming security. Huge, unprecedented demonstrations bring together hundreds of thousands of people every week. Who will defend the country? Who will bear arms? The pro-democracy movement affects thousands of reservists who have already announced that they will not serve a dictatorship, among them nearly 60% of pilots, flight crew and operating room officers, who have stopped coming to perform reserve periods.
Big bosses of high technology, the engine of the Israeli economy, also say that they will set up abroad if there is no independent judicial system in the country. Doctors are leaving too, there is a brain drain. The crisis is already affecting the economy. The question also arises for the diaspora. Can Jews abroad identify with an Israel led by ultranationalists, homophobic and racist messianic clerics? We are heading towards a constitutional crisis. The situation seems blocked, it is a real confrontation, more than a standoff.
Is Benjamin Netanyahu not caught in his own trap?
Netanyahu is not a hostage at all. His coalition, 64 deputies out of 120, is very solid but in the event of early elections, according to all the latest polls, it would lose power and therefore has no interest in going to the polls. Especially since Netanyahu would have difficulty finding other allies. But it was he who set up this nationalist, messianic and ultraorthodox coalition that he had been preparing since 2020.
He chooses to stay on this line. I’m not in his head, but in my opinion, he thinks that this will succeed for him, like the Hungarian illiberal model, Viktor Orban, with whom he is very close. He has, of course, always been a master of opportunistic tactics, which have always served him well, but we must not forget that in the end, it is he who decides and acts.
In my opinion, Benjamin Netanyahu is an ideologue, following the line of his father the historian Benzion Netanyahu, for whom the Jewish people have been threatened with destruction since Antiquity. The Palestinian nation would have been created only to attack Israel. His son developed it in his program books published in 1993 and 1995, which few reread today.
That being said, anything can still happen, medical reasons, his trial which is still dragging out… The Saudis could demand that Israel take real steps in favor of the Palestinians and the PLO in exchange for a historic peace agreement between the two countries. But this would trigger a major crisis with Likud annexationists, religious Zionists and members of Jewish Power, the Kahanist party of Itamar Ben-Gvir. Is Netanyahu willing to go that far? We will see if he will succeed in resolving this squaring of the circle.