The crisis in Israel over the offensive of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government against justice is perhaps the darkest and perhaps most unlikely example of a phenomenon of repudiation of the judiciary that is manifested in the world in a transversal way, without ideological filters.
Netanyahu and his companions ultra-religious supremacists, such as Latin American populisms and their European or American ultra-religious version, seek to engulf the only arm of the state that escapes their control.
Interestingly, as pointed out The Economistthat the Israeli right argues that judges “are unelected officials and are constituted as a power intended to block the will of elected politicians”, an argument used, for example, by Kirchnerismo in Argentina to support its attack on the Supreme Court.
The idea of judicial independence worries the power above all if there are traces of crimes at that summit, an alibi by law, but even without that reproach, it calls into question an autonomy of the Executive which should be limitless due to the simple fact that it was validated by vote.
Netanyahu really addresses a handful of causes of corruption ridiculous in their dimensions compared to the cases of our country, or in Venezuela, but significant in their historical destiny. Justice check would turn those files into a piece of paper.
But beyond these misdeeds of the rulers, it is important to note that this generalized offensive against a fundamental power of the Republic confirms a time weakness experienced by the system as a whole. A dangerous anti-democratic deformation that closes in on itself.
In this logic, abuses against institutions produce unpredictable scenarios which pave the way for corruption, among other misdeeds. The inexistence of justice to punish these crimes in turn fuels anti-system notions resulting in leadership of these characteristics that have multiplied around the world. And who end up being the ones who strangle the judicial route.
autocracies
This process can be seen in the multiplication of autocratic models such as in Viktor Orban’s Hungary, in the perverse extremes of the current Russian regime, in Chavista Venezuela, in Iran or in more attenuated formats, due to the resistance of their societies, in Argentina, Mexico or as happened in Bolsonaro’s Brazilian experience.
The new Chilean constitution, for example, rejected en masse in last September’s referendum, drafted by a minority that considers itself progressive, practically disdained the existence of the judiciary, minimizing the functions of the Supreme Court, which is the head of that Power.
In the United States, Donald Trump has sought the same with the dominance of the Supreme Court, but he has done so by opportunistically taking advantage of the appointment of conservative judges, some of them stuck in the Middle Ages, who it unbalanced the balanced decision-making capacity of the court.
The poor performance of the Republican Party in the recent midterm elections and, in particular, of the candidates blessed by the controversial New York tycoon, was largely the result of that Court’s rulings in very sensitive cases such as Wade v. Roe on the right to abortion.
People protested without the massive marches we see in Israel, but they did in a definitely before the polls giving the Democratic Party a result with few precedents, keeping the Senate in pro-government hands and conceding a minimal victory to the opposition in the lower house.
On other frontiers, this game against the judiciary has had ridiculous spillovers, such as in Venezuela, where the regime has appointed as head of the highest court an individual with two counts of murder, aligned in power to such an extent that when the opposition won the Parliament in 2015, the court asked obtain legislative powers.
Nicaragua followed that example and today there is only one power with the others reduced to mere notarial studies, a classic of dictatorships.
In El Salvador, now in the foreground for the anti-criminal exhibitionism of the singular Nayib Bukele, a tenacious admirer of Trump, the phenomenon was repeated with other masks. After winning the legislative elections in March 2021, Bukele, in one fell swoop, beheaded the Supreme Courtdeputy judges and the country’s attorney general.
With the idea that the vote validates everything, they were raised without prior trial, charge or constitutional cure. Within a few hours the country passed from imperfect republic to protodictatorship.
In Mexico, not so quietly, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador doubled down on his own offensive against the Supreme after the court blocked a controversial reform that limited the functions of the National Electoral Institute, the autonomous constitutional body charged with holding and regulating electoral processes.
For the opposition, the government has tried to control the 2024 presidential election process, a worrying specter in a country that has suffered nearly 70 years of a single party with the “dedazo” of the PRI as ruler.
These controversies with the judiciary reached such levels that when the head of the Court, Norma Piña, after a sensational public repudiation by the president, was threatened with death, López Obrador treated this grave news with contempt and ridicule.
“Those who put the message (the threat), in one of those until they were themselves (the judges), because they are capable of this and more. So are the conservatives, they throw the stone and hide their hand, very crooked (cheaters) ”, she accused.
The comment was devastating. Mexico is a country where narcoterrorism it made murder commonplace. Judge Piña had been sent a message with a bullet and the slogan that this was the way to stop her.
automatic majorities
Not far from there, in time and distance, Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right former president, has waged a persistent battle with the judiciary throughout his tenure that included maneuvers to expand the court by adding four more magistrates to the order to ensure an automatic majority.
In Israel, the legislation promoted by Netanyahu is a proforma of the entire global scenario of imbalance of power that we summarize here. The initiative aims in principle to control a device similar to that of the Council of the Judiciary for the selection of judges, giving greater power to the political wing in the structure of the modalities of ensure the preferred profile of the candidates.
It also limits or virtually eliminates the Court’s ability to review laws passed by Parliament. If the judges still block a rule they deem excessive, the legislator can reinstate it ignoring the opinion of the courtiers.
All assembly implies the disappearance of the judicial arm in the Republic, which is what Israeli President Isaac Herzog has been trying to prevent, the military refusing to be part of a power with these authoritarian diversions and the hundreds of thousands in the streets.
They know that in this way the Executive, permeated by fanatical wings, could implement any censorship or provision that ignores the legality and individual rights of minorities, without being questioned. But also Netanyahu hides behind alleged absolute rights which gives you being voted.
One of the initiatives that beats under this absurdity is the insistent request of the ultras sectors linked to the Prime Minister annex the entire Palestinian territory from the West Bank to the Jordan.
The proposal does not clarify what would happen to the more than five million Palestinian inhabitants of those regions. In that case they should either immediately become Israeli citizens or be convicted a segregation this would imply the mortal blow to Israeli democracy. But justice shouldn’t be there to prevent that.
400 years ago, Blaise Pascal he warned that force without justice is tyranny. Almost as if he anticipated this gift.
©Copyright Clarin 2023
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.