janeandbobandmore: CORNERSTONES OF ISRAELI DEMOCRACY

CORNERSTONE OF ISRAELI DEMOCRACY

Unlike the United States which is a federal republic with a written Constitution, Israel is a parliamentary democracy with a Prime Minister. Both countries have governmental authority divided into three branches - Executive, Legislative and Judicial – dividing governmental authority to protect their citizens from the tyranny of power. While in Israel we had the opportunity to visit the legislative and judicial branches.

KNESSET - legislative branch

The Knesset building houses the legislative branch of the government. Its largest and most elegant space is Chagall Hall where ceremonies are held and visiting dignitaries are met. The hall features three magnificent tapestries designed by Marc Chagall and woven in Gobelin France. The PAST features the Exodus, cornerstone of the formation of the Jewish people; the PRESENT with the return to Zion: and the FUTURE with the Jewish people living in harmony.

It is truly difficult to explain the workings of Israeli democracy. The Knesset consists of 120 elected members. No party alone has enough seats to form a government for Israel has multiple small parties, each with its own agenda. A leader needs to gain a majority of votes to form a government and become prime minister. It is extremely difficult for the leader of one party to form a suitable, compatible and durable coalition when some parties may have only one seat. If a party gets more than 3.5% of the vote, it is entitled to representation and that very small representation may be critical to forming a majority for a coalition government. Leaving the coalition they can cause the government to fall.

What can a Prime Minister offer these multiple parties to get them to join his coalition so he is enabled to form a new government. Many ask - how do the religious (haredi) have so much power? Answer: they vote together, elect their representatives and bargain with the Prime Minister for those issues which it wants out of the coalition—or they will take their votes elsewhere. At the time of this writing, it appears that Prime Minister Netanyahu may have to form a new coalition of the current parties or to dissolve his government, call for an election and hope to create a more workable majority. Alternatively, he will remain Prime Minister with 61 votes and will assume the post of the recently resigned Defense Minister. December 2018 update: Somehow Netanyahu managed to maintain his ruling majority and remain prime minister.

Others ask if the Arabs in Israel receive representation. The answer is, “Yes.” The 20% of the population in Israel who identify themselves as Arab have the right to vote in every election. There is an Arab party in the Knesset—although not all Arabs vote for this party. The system is clearly fractious. While this kind of fragmentation can ultimately be very democratic, it can also undermine support for a single leader making Israeli politics very complex.

(An aside - Ben had a view inside the Knesset when, by chance, he FaceTimed from South Korea where he was working.)

VISITING THE KNESSET, WE SAW A FACSIMILE OF THE DECLARATION of the ESTABLISHMENT of the STATE of ISRAEL May 14, 1948

“Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers, defiant returnees, and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country’s inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood…..”

For the complete text https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-declaration-of-independence-may-14-1948/

Israel’s Declaration of Independence was written and signed by the Provisional Government the day before the British Mandate ended. It built on the promise of the Balfour Declaration and the United Nations resolution to divide the Palestine Mandate into a homeland for the Jews and one for the Arabs. On Friday afternoon, May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion read the declaration aloud proclaiming “the State of Israel is established.” The next day, the British High Commissioner departed in an open Bentley with Scottish bag-pipers playing at the Jaffa Gate as he left Jerusalem. Midnight in Haifa, he boarded a steamship bound for England. War would soon break out as Israel's neighboring Arab nations invaded to destroy the new-born Jewish state.

Among the signatories to the Declaration was my grandfather’s cousin (my second cousin once removed), Yitzchak Ben Tzvi. Ben Tzvi and his father Tzvi Shimshi (from our family name Shimshelevich) had escaped to the Palestine Mandate after being exiled to Siberia from the Ukraine. Ben Tzvi was an early Zionist leader, a fervent socialist who later would become the second president of Israel.

THE SUPREME COURT - judicial branch

Israel’s Supreme Court is housed in a magnificent building designed by the world-famous Israeli architect Moshe Safdie. The court rests on a hill overlooking the Executive and Legislative branches of government. Its location emphasizes the primacy of the court system in establishing the rule of law. One enters through the Courtyard of the Arches which resembles the gates of Jerusalem during the Roman Period. The courtyard is comprised of stone quarried from the earth and water reflecting the sky. This construction is inspired by a verse, Psalms 85:12 "Truth will spring from the earth and Justice will be reflected from the heavens."

The State of Israel's court system is made up of three levels: Magistrates Courts, District Courts and the Supreme Court. The Israeli Supreme Court has 15 judges who sit in rotating, randomized panels of 3 to hear cases. Typically they act as an appellate court reviewing judgments made in the lower court system. Whereas in the US, the Supreme Court will hear about 80 cases a year, in Israel the many judges will hear many thousands of cases. Israel has no constitution to be interpreted; but rather cases are decided on the basis of other precedents so that the case law is very important in all future decisions in the lower courts. The Supreme Court judges are selected after applying and listing experience and qualifications. A nine member panel of five jurists and four politicians is entrusted to select new Supreme Court justices requiring a 7-2 decision for acceptance. Judges come from the many constituencies in Israel: Arab, Druze, Christian and, of course, Jewish.

PRIME MINISTER - executive branch

While we were in Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister heading a Likud-led coalition.