Haaretz :These Are Dark Days for Israel': Financial Times Blasts Netanyahu's Judicial Coup

 Haaretz | Israel News

'These Are Dark Days for Israel': Financial Times Blasts Netanyahu's Judicial Coup

Comparing the erosion of Israel's democracy to that of Hungary, Poland and Turkey, the FT editorial warns that in Israel, the stakes are higher: 'Israel has held itself out as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East. That light, if not yet extinguished, is unsettlingly dimmed'

A woman next to a bonfire on a road during a protest against Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new right-wing coalition and its proposed judicial changes in Tel Aviv, Saturday night.Credit: AMMAR AWAD/ REUTERS

Feb 26, 2023 1:16 pm IST

The Financial Times dedicated its editorial on Friday to denouncing the judicial overhaul underway by Benjamin Netanyahu's government as "an extensive power grab."

"These are dark days for Israel," the British daily's Editorial Board begins. "As politics lurches towards the reactionary, with ultranationalists in key security posts promoting annexation of Palestinian territory, essential checks on executive excess are under threat."

The Financial Times joins The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Economist in explicitly coming out against the plan to defang Israel's judiciary. The Wall Street Journal, however, defended the reforms.

The editorial comes after the paper's chief economic commentator, Martin Wolf, penned an op-ed against Israel's descent into "illiberal democracy," despite receiving a phone call from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lobby him in the other direction.

Last week, the Israeli government pushed through the first round of votes for several flagship bills from the plan, which would guarantee it a majority on the panel that selects judges and prevent the country's top court from striking down quasi-constitutional Basic Laws.

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Pointing to widespread opposition to the policies – spanning from hundreds of thousands of Israelis protesting weekly to concerns from the president and the attorney general – the Financial Times is echoing warnings that the reforms would not only be constitutional, but also economic.

"The shekel slumped to a three-year low on the back of this week’s votes. Business leaders and bankers worry about a flight of key workers and capital from a country perceived to be marching towards autocracy, while investors fret about legal uncertainty and arbitrary government power," it said.

While it notes that "concern about [the top court's] over-reach is legitimate," the editorial says that "curbing it requires considered, constitutional reform supported across the political spectrum, not the kind of blatant power grab Netanyahu and his allies are attempting."

Echoing prevalent comparisons between Israel and other democracies on the "dark path of illiberalism," such as Hungary, Poland and Turkey, the editorial concludes that "here, the stakes are even higher. Israel has held itself out as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East. That light, if not yet extinguished, is unsettlingly dimmed."

Haaretz