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Israeli democracy may not survive a ‘reform’ of its Supreme Court
(JTA) — On Dec. 29, Israel swore in Benjamin Netanyahu’s sixth government. The Likud leader became Israel’s prime minister once more, and one week later, Israel’s long-anticipated judicial counterrevolution began.
In the Knesset Wednesday, newly minted Justice Minister and Netanyahu confidant Yariv Levin unveiled a package of proposed legislation that would alter the balance of power between Israel’s legislature and its Supreme Court.
At the core of this plan is a bill to allow the Knesset to override the Supreme Court. Levin’s proposals — which almost certainly have the immediate support of a Knesset majority, regardless of Levin’s assurances that they would be subject to “thorough debate” — would pave the way for Israel’s new government to pass legislation that curtails rights and undermines the rule of law, dealing a blow to Israeli democracy.
The dire implications of this proposed judicial reform are rooted in key characteristics of the Israeli political system that set it apart from other liberal democracies. Israel has no constitution to determine the balance of power between its various branches of government. In fact, there is no separation between Israel’s executive and legislative branches, given that the government automatically controls a majority in the parliament.
Instead, it has a series of basic laws enacted piecemeal over the course of the state’s history that have a quasi-constitutional status, with the initial intention that they would eventually constitute a de jure constitution.
Through the 1980s, the Knesset passed basic laws that primarily served to define state institutions, such as the country’s legislature and electoral system, capital and military. In the 1990s, there was a paradigm shift with the passage of two basic laws that for the first time concerned individuals’ rights rather than institutions, one on Human Dignity and Liberty (1992) and the other on Freedom of Occupation (1994). These laws enshrined rights to freedom of movement, personal freedom, human dignity and others to all who reside in Israel.
Aharon Barak, the president of Israel’s Supreme Court from 1995 to 2006, argued that these laws constituted a de facto bill of rights, empowering the court to review Knesset legislation and to strike down laws that violate civil liberties, a responsibility not explicitly bestowed upon the court in the basic law pertaining to the judiciary. In 1995, the Supreme Court officially ruled that it could indeed repeal legislation that violates the country’s basic laws, heralding an era of increased judicial activism in Israel in what became known as the “judicial revolution.” The court has struck down 20 laws since, a fairly modest number compared to other democracies.
The judicial revolution of the 1990s shifted the balance of power in Israel’s political system from one of parliamentary sovereignty, in which the Knesset enjoyed ultimate power, to one in which the legislature is restricted from violating the country’s (incomplete) constitution. Israel’s Supreme Court became a check on the legislative branch in a country that lacks other checks and balances and separations of power.
As a result of these characteristics, the Supreme Court currently serves as one of the only checks on the extraordinary power of Israel’s 120-member Knesset — which is why shifting that balance of power would have such a dramatic impact on Israel’s democracy.
Levin’s proposed judicial overhaul includes several elements that would weaken the power and independence of Israel’s Supreme Court. The plan includes forbidding the Supreme Court from deliberating on and striking down basic laws themselves. It would require an unspecified “special majority” of the court to strike down legislation, raising the threshold from where it currently stands.
Levin has also called for altering the composition of the selection committee that appoints top judges to give the government, rather than legal professionals, a majority on the panel. It would allow cabinet ministers to appoint legal advisors to act on their behalf, rather than that of the justice ministry, canceling these advisors’ role as safeguards against government overreach. Should a minister enact a decision that contravenes a basic law, the ministry’s legal advisor would no longer report the violation to the attorney general, and would instead merely offer non-binding legal advice to the minister.
The pièce de résistance is, of course, the override clause that would allow the Knesset to reinstate laws struck down by the Supreme Court by 61 members of Knesset, a simple majority assuming all members are present. The sole restriction on this override would be a provision preventing the Knesset from re-legislating laws struck down unanimously, by all 15 judges, within the same Knesset term.
This plan’s obvious and most immediate result would be the effective annulment of the quasi-constitutional status of Israel’s basic laws. If the Knesset’s power to legislate is no longer bound by basic laws, these de facto constitutional amendments no longer have any teeth. There are no guardrails preventing any Knesset majority from doing as it wishes, including violating basic human rights. The Knesset could pass laws openly curtailing freedom of the press or gender equality, for example, should it choose to do so.
This counterrevolution, in effect, goes further than merely undoing what occurred in the 1990s.
Most crucially, the Knesset that would once again enjoy full parliamentary sovereignty in 2022 is not the Knesset of Israel’s first four decades. Shackling the Supreme Court is essential to the agendas of the new government’s various ultra-right and ultra-religious parties. For example, the haredi Orthodox parties are eager to re-legislate a blanket exemption to the military draft for their community, which the court struck down in 2017 on the grounds that it was discriminatory. They also have their sights on revoking recognition of non-Orthodox conversions for immigrants to Israel, undoing a court decision from 2021.
The far-right, Jewish supremacist parties of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, meanwhile, see an opportunity to deal a decisive blow to an institution that has long served as a check on the settlement movement. They hope to tie the court’s hands in the face of oncoming legislation to retroactively legalize settlements built on private Palestinian land, which are illegal under Israeli law. But this is only the beginning: Neutering the authority of the court could pave the way for legal discrimination against Israel’s Arab minority, such as Ben-Gvir’s proposal to deport minorities who show insufficient loyalty.
The timing of Levin’s announcement Wednesday could not be more germane. The Knesset recently amended the basic law to legalize the appointment of Aryeh Deri, the Shas party leader who is serving a suspended sentence for tax fraud, as a minister in the new government. The Supreme Court convened Thursday morning to hear petitions against his appointment from those arguing that it is “unreasonable” to rehabilitate Deri given his multiple criminal convictions, a view shared by Israel’s attorney general. Levin’s proposals would bar the court from using this “reasonability” standard.
The Israeli right has long chafed at the power of the Supreme Court, which it accuses of having a left-wing bias. But a judicial overhaul like this has never enjoyed the full support of the government, nor was Netanyahu previously in favor of it. Now, with a uniformly right-wing government and Netanyahu on trial for corruption, the prime minister’s foremost interest is appeasing his political partners and securing their support for future legislation to shield him from prosecution.
In a system where the majority rules, there need to be mechanisms in place to protect the rights of minorities — political, ethnic and religious. Liberal democracy requires respect for the rule of law and human rights. Yariv Levin’s proposals to fully subordinate the Supreme Court to the Knesset will concentrate virtually unchecked power in the hands of a few individuals — government ministers and party leaders within the coalition who effectively control what the Knesset does. That those individuals were elected in free and fair elections is no guarantee that the changes they make will be democratic.
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Online Watchdog Group Exposes Viral Antisemitic, Arabic-Language Conspiracy Theory ‘Tired Islam’
A keyboard. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
An independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to combating the spread of online antisemitism said on Monday it has identified a trending Arabic-language conspiracy theory on social media known as “Tired Islam,” which falsely accuses Jews of plotting against Arab and Muslim society.
CyberWell – a trusted partner of Meta (Facebook, Instagram, and Threads), TikTok, and YouTube – explained that the fabricated narrative claims a Jewish or “Zionist” author named Jacob Dunne published a book titled “The Tired Islam,” which outlines a secret Jewish plan to destroy Arab and Muslim society. No such book exists in the US Library of Congress or elsewhere, according to CyberWell.
CyberWell founder and CEO Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor said the trendy conspiracy theory “revives century-old religious antisemitism, tailored to go viral on today’s platforms” and “pushes the same antisemitic tropes that have historically led to mass violence against Jews, now wrapped in a pseudointellectual setting to appear credible and urgent.” She also described it as “a modern-day digital replica” of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the longstanding antisemitic text from the early 20th century that describes a fabricated plot by Jews for world domination. The “Tired Islam” narrative is often described as a continuation of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” according to CyberWell.
Videos on social media that promote the “Tired Islam” conspiracy often feature a series of fake “excerpts” from a fictional chapter titled “The End of the Arabs,” in the non-existent book. The “excerpts” include false claims about the alleged ways Jews want to demolish Muslim society, which include promoting feminism, attacking mosques, corroding family values, and using technology to control Muslim youth. The videos also display fake publication details for the book and falsely claim it is in the Library of Congress, which CyberWell has confirmed is not true. The videos often urge social media users to share the clip as a religious and moral obligation.
“Digital platforms are facing a moment of reckoning due to the continued poisoning and abuse of the information economy,” said Cohen Montemayor. “Antisemitic actors are using the virality of misinformation to inject age-old conspiracies into religious and political discourse. The fact that this narrative is being promoted as a ‘religious’ imperative makes it especially difficult to moderate and even more dangerous. We are watching, in real time, the formation of a new ‘Protocols’; but unlike 1903, this time the digital platforms governing content through Trust & Safety can still stop it before it spreads beyond control.”
CyberWell monitors social media in English and Arabic for posts that promote antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and violence against Jews and their allies based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. Its analysts review and report hateful content to platform moderators.
The nonprofit organization said social media platforms are “consistently failing to intervene” and take action against the “Tired Islam” conspiracy theory despite its “clear violations” of hateful conduct policies and promotion of classic antisemitic tropes, conspiracies, and stereotypes about Jews. CyberWell said that in multiple cases, social media platforms concluded that content online tied to the “Tired Islam” theory does not violate the platform’s community standards. The organization also noted, however, that these platforms do not even have a consistent policy pertaining to the quoting of anonymous or forged texts.
“The ‘Tired Islam’ trend dehumanizes Jews and positions them as a collective enemy of Islam. Left unchecked, this will radicalize communities, incite division, and fuel religious hatred across borders,” said Cohen Montemayor. “Narratives like this could easily escalate into real-world violence, particularly if audiences are led to believe that their core belief systems and family values are under direct attack by a specific minority group. Comparable dynamics were observed in the lead-up to the Charlie Hebdo attack in France, where portrayals of perceived assaults on Islam contributed to radical extremist violence and terrorism.”
It has been 10 years since the Islamist terrorist attack at the Paris office of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo. On Jan. 7, 2015, al Qaeda-linked gunmen and brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi stormed the Charlie Hebdo office and killed 12 people, including eight editorial staff members. A Muslim police officer guarding the offices was also shot and killed at point-blank range by the terrorists. Over the next two days, Amedy Coulibaly, who was tied to the Kouachi brothers, killed five people, including at a kosher supermarket, and claimed to be acting on behalf of the Islamic State group. All three gunmen were killed in police raids on Jan. 9.
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Legal Union Pays Six-Figure Settlement Over Antisemitism Accusations
Illustrative: A pro-Hamas demonstrator uses a bullhorn during a protest at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on March 11, 2025. Photo: Daniel Cole via Reuters Connect
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, one of America’s leading Jewish civil rights groups, notched a major court victory on Thursday which secured a six-figure settlement for a cohort of plaintiffs who alleged that their union fostered a hostile environment against Jewish and Zionist members during an outbreak of pro-Hamas sentiment set off by the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
Per the terms of the agreement, the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA), the union for New York public defenders, will shell out $315,000 in damages while admitting culpability in the events which precipitated legal action. The ALAA also agreed to institute new training courses on the rights of union members and accept a neutral third party’s oversight of other organizational procedures.
“We are seeing an increasing trend in labor union antisemitism, much as we have seen a similar increase on college campuses. In both cases, there is bitter irony,” Brandeis Center chairman and founder Kenneth Marcus said in a statement. “Colleges are supposed to be islands of reason and tolerance. Labor unions are supposed to be advocates for social justice and workplace equality. To find the oldest hatred in such places is deeply antithetical to their mission.”
He added, “This settlement is a landmark in the fight against antisemitism in this sector. I am gratified by this outcome and resolved to support Jewish workers at any union around the country that is seeing this problem arise. Based on what we’re hearing around the country, there will be more of these cases coming.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the ALAA allegedly became a “cornucopia of classic modern antisemitism” in late 2023. Just weeks after the Oct. 7 attack, it passed a virulently anti-Israel resolution which made only a passing reference to Hamas’s atrocities and launched a smear campaign against Jewish members who opposed it. Following that, the union facilitated the filing of disciplinary, “formal charges” against Jewish and Zionist members, attempting to expel them from its ranks.
Antisemitic conduct in the ALAA took on other forms, the complaint alleged. Members commended Hamas’s violence, chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and denied that the terrorist group had murdered women and children. In one incident, someone allegedly asserted that Zionist beliefs would prevent Jewish attorneys from “zealously” defending Muslims, Palestinians, and Arabs and lead them to conspire against them and sabotage their cases.
More Jewish professionals are experiencing workplace discrimination, as previously reported by The Algemeiner.
According to a study released in May by the StandWithUs Data & Analytics Department, antisemitism in academic medical centers located on college campuses is fostering noxious environments which deprive Jewish health-care professionals of their civil right to work in spaces free from discrimination and hate.
Titled “Antisemitism in American Healthcare: The Role of Workplace Environment,” the study includes survey data showing that 62.8 percent of Jewish health-care professionals employed by campus-based medical centers reported experiencing antisemitism, a far higher rate than those working in private practice and community hospitals. Fueling the rise in hate, it added, were repeated failures of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives to educate workers about antisemitism, increasing the likelihood of antisemitic activity.
“Academia today is increasingly cultivating an environment which is hostile to Jews, as well as members of other religious and ethnic groups,” StandWithUs director of data and analytics and study co-author Alexandra Fishman said in a statement. “Academic institutions should be upholding the integrity of scholarship, prioritizing civil discourse, rather than allowing bias or personal agendas to guide academic culture.”
Another study by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that 42 percent of Jewish faculty feel that the top US professional associations for academics, including the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), alienate Jews intentionally if they publicly align with Zionism.
According to the data, 25 percent resort to concealing their Jewishness due to the hostile environment, and another 45 percent say their colleagues lectured them on what does and what does not constitute antisemitism. The report also “reveals alarming patterns of marginalization, leadership failures, and systematic exclusion of Jewish members from their professional communities and academic homes,” the ADL said in a statement.
Some academic bodies, such as the American Philosophical Association and the American Political Science Association, were conferred high ratings based on Jewish faculty not reporting any “major incidents,” while others, including the American Anthropological Association and several others, were labeled as “major concerns” requiring significant remedial action.
“Antisemitic biases in professional academic associations are widespread and reveal a problem that goes far beyond traditional scholarly circles,” ADL chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “When antisemitism and biased anti-Israel narratives are normalized within these influential spaces, they seep into curricula, research, and public discourse, quietly but profoundly shaping how students and future professionals interpret the world.”
He added, “By assessing these associations and how they are responding, we are delineating a path forward to ensure that academic spaces remain intellectually rigorous, inclusive and free of antisemitism, and accountable to the public they serve.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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German Auction House Cancels Sale of Holocaust Artifacts Following Outrage
People with Israeli flags attend the International March of the Living at the former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp, in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
An auction house in Germany canceled a sale of hundreds of Holocaust artifacts – including letters written by German concentration camp prisoners to their loved ones — that was scheduled to take place on Monday following intense backlash from an association of Holocaust survivors and government officials in Poland and Germany.
Radoslaw Sikorski, the deputy prime minister of Poland, announced on Sunday that the “offensive” auction was canceled after he and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul “agreed that such a scandal must be prevented.” Sikorski called for the Holocaust artifacts to be instead given to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.
“The memory of Holocaust victims is not a commodity and cannot be the subject of commercial trade,” he said in a post on X. “Respect for victims requires the dignity of silence, not the din of commerce.”
The Auktionhaus Felzmann auction house in the city of Neuss planned to sell on Monday a lot titled “The System of Terror Vol II 1933-1945.” It included more than 600 items such as Gestapo index cards and other documents that belonged to perpetrators of the genocide against European Jewry. Also up for sale were personal documents “relating to the persecution and humiliation of individuals” that contained the real names of Holocaust victims, according to the International Auschwitz Committee, which unites organizations, foundations, and Holocaust survivors from 19 countries. The items have since been removed from the Auktionhaus Felzmann website.
Over the weekend, Christoph Heubner, executive vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee, called on the auction house to “show some human decency” and cancel the auction.
“For victims of Nazi persecution and survivors of the Holocaust, this auction is a cynical and shameless piece of marketing,” said Heubner. “It leaves them outraged and stunned. Their history and the suffering of all those who were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis are being abused and exploited for commercial gain.”
Heubner added that personal documents relating to the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews belong to the families of victims. Those items “should be displayed in museums or in exhibitions at memorial sites and not be reduced to profit-making articles in a commercial context,” he noted.