Democracy At Risk
Democracy is under threat in Israel from the Prime Minister Netanyahu who is seeking to get the votes to pass a law that would limit the power of judicial branch of their government. I don’t pretend to understand it fully, but I know it’s serious. There have been mass protests over this in the past several months, and some members of the government are expressing strong, vocal opposition to the proposed change in the law. Things are happening fast, and we might know more by early next week. From the NYTimes:
“In chaotic scenes in Parliament, lawmakers raced to finalize the text of a proposed law that the coalition hopes to present for a final vote early this week. The measure would give the government greater control over the selection of Supreme Court judges.”
It’s horrifying that this democracy may be disappearing—it’s dividing Israeli society, the Jewish diaspora and greatly concerning the Biden administration. I think it is a moment of great import for Israelis and the Jewish people. My relatives who live over there are extremely concerned, are protesting in the streets with hundreds of thousands of other citizens, almost every day. Some say this is simply Netanyahu’s effort to avoid being imprisoned for corruption, for which he has been charged. But whatever the reason, I hope it doesn’t pass.
And moments ago, Netanyahu fired the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, who very recently publicly opposed what Bibi is trying to do.
I could not think of what to draw about this, so I did the drawing above.