Israel's majoritarian push as majority will

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Israel's parliament passed the first piece of judicial reform package last Monday that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described as a 'minor correction'. The reform limits the 'reasonableness' clause by which the Israeli Supreme Court overturns government decisions the judiciary deems unconstitutional. Put bluntly, this is majoritarianism being passed off as 'mandate' and 'majority'.

The need for judicial reform in Israel is real — an unrepresentative judiciary, an undefined relationship between the court and the legislature leaves too many gaps. But it requires consultations and consensus. Protests earlier this year forced Netanyahu to shelve these reforms.

Consultations were slow, and Bibi was put on a schedule by his coalition partners from the extreme-right. Efforts to buy more time for talks by the PM and moderate members of government failed. The peculiarities apart, the situation spotlights tensions that are informing many other democracies: dissatisfaction with governments' handling of the economic situation, pandemic recovery, the energy, food and economic crises, climate impacts, and dislocations from transformations necessary to tackle climate change and migration.

It is giving populist, conservative and inward-looking politics a new lease, and throwing up fractured mandates from the electorate. Israel's judicial reforms is a cautionary tale for all strong governments. The inherent risk of coalitions cobbled together with a singular purpose — to keep or gain power or keep someone out.