By Yehuda Poch
March 15, 2006
Israeli democracy is a fragile thing. It has not had to withstand many true tests of its character. Perhaps the most serious test of its durability is its response to the officially sanctioned pogrom that took place at Amona last month. The barely contained violence, physical abuse, sexual harassment, and outright assault exhibited by the security forces against unarmed demonstrators represents a grave threat to the rule of law in Israel.
One of the underpinnings of democratic rule is the limits placed on public freedom by established law as enacted by the representatives of the public. Those limits must be enforced in order for the law -- and by extension the public's will -- to have any effect in society. And it is the duty of police and security forces to enforce the limits imposed by the will of the public as expressed in laws.
When police and security forces, under orders from their highest superiors, exhibit such behavior as took place on that hilltop, they leave the realm of law enforcement and join the ranks of bullies, imposing their will on the public from above.
Another one of the necessary underpinnings of democracy is the institution of checks and balances ? the feature whereby each branch of government ensures that the others act only within their limited sphere of responsibility. When one agency of government oversteps its boundaries, it is the responsibility of the others to enact sanctions to repair the damage and strengthen the limits placed on government.
The Knesset acted in the immediate aftermath of Amona, creating a parliamentary commission of inquiry tasked to investigate the excessive abuse that took place and recommend sanctions. That committee is chaired by Likud MK Yuval Steinitz, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which has oversight powers over the police. The committee has been meeting regularly, and will be issuing its interim report next week, before the elections.
The Knesset is the proper place for checks and balances to be implemented, since the police and security forces in this case acted as part of the judiciary, under an allowance from the Supreme Court and orders that were approved by the Attorney General.
One person has emerged to block the checks and balances of Israeli democracy ? Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra of Kadima. Ezra has expressly forbidden any serving police officer from testifying before the committee, despite summonses issued for them to appear. He has been joined in his opposition by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, also of Kadima, and by Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz, a man who, in his time on the job, has made every effort to show that the rule of law is a meaningless slogan to him.
This triumvirate represents a grave threat to the mechanics of Israeli democracy, and with it to the confidence the Israeli public has in its law enforcement officers and to the rule of law. For if police and security officials can be allowed to circumvent both the law and the democratic traditions that they are supposed to be defending, then Israelis on the street can be forgiven for ignoring their efforts to enforce such laws when it is convenient for them. The fact that the leaders of this group are the minister responsible for the police and the chief law enforcement officer of the country only serves to reinforce this deterioration in Israeli democracy.
It is even more worrisome that many of the influential policy forums in Israel remain silent on this grave danger. The Israel Democracy Institute, which styles itself as the final arbiter on the meaning of democracy in Israel, made a lot of nonsensical noise last summer claiming that those expelled from Gush Katif and Northern Samaria were behaving in an anti-democratic manner. There is little doubt that these pronouncements were part of the mix leading establishment officials to fear the demonstrators at Amona to the extent that tremendously excessive force was used to disperse them.
But now that democracy is truly under attack -- a concerted attack by the top law enforcement officials in the country -- the Israel Democracy Institute remains conspicuous by their silence.
It is high time that Israeli institutions, including the Knesset, the judiciary, the cabinet, and even private institutions tasked with protecting our democracy, begin working to institute the democracy everyone seems so fond of talking about. Yuval Steinitz is to be commended for his tireless efforts in this direction. The longer people like Mazuz and Ezra are left in their positions, the greater the danger to Israeli democracy.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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