The Multiparty System: Israel Country Study

Summary

Israel is a parliamentary democracy with regular elections since its founding in May 1948. Its multiparty system is highly diverse, including representation for minority populations. Since 1973, the Freedom in the World survey has ranked Israel as the region’s only consistently Free country (Tunisia gained that status briefly). But scores have declined in recent years as Israel’s democracy faces a range of challenges: political instability; ongoing political violence; the rise of extremist political parties in governance; corruption charges against a sitting prime minister; continued unequal treatment of the Arab minority; and a military occupation of Palestinian territories lasting more than 50 years.

Israel declared its independence as a state six months after the United Nations adopted a partition plan dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The rejection of the UN plan by Palestinians and Arab states led to a series of wars that threatened Israel’s existence. The first in 1948 resulted in the largely forced dislocation of 700,000 Arab Palestinians from Israel’s mandated territory. In the 1967 War, Israel occupied lands designated for an Arab Palestinian state (until then held under administration by Jordan and Egypt). Despite a landmark agreement in 1993 establishing Palestinian autonomy over the territory, statehood remained unresolved. Israel continues to expand settlements on West Bank territory in violation of international law, making a two-state solution less viable.

After a fifth election in four years, there are presently ten parties seated in the Knesset, Israel’s unicameral parliament. They represent a variety of political views and interests among the majority Jewish and minority Arab population. After elections in 2021, a center-right to center-left coalition formed a narrow majority, including for the first time an Arab Israeli party. But the government lasted only one year. Following elections in November 2022, the right-wing Likud Party formed a narrow majority with several extremist parties that seek government control over the judiciary and annexation of the West Bank.

Israel is a small country on the Mediterranean Sea, bordered by Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Excluding occupied territories, it ranks 149th among 194 countries in area. Following Jewish emigration from Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa, the population has grown from about one million at its founding to 9.5 million today. About 75 percent of the population is Jewish, 20 percent is Arab and 5 percent are non-Arab Muslims, Christians and Jewish immigrants unrecognized as such by the Interior Ministry. The Jewish population consists of Ashkenazim (those of European descent) and Sephardim (those of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern or other origin). The latter includes 160,000 Black Jews who emigrated from Ethiopia, known as Beta Israel (see Resources). Druze, who are conflated with the Arab Muslim population, practice a monotheistic, poly-confessional faith. There are about 750,000 Jewish citizens living in settlements built on occupied territories of the West Bank, which has a population of 3.2 million Palestinians.

Despite its small size, Israel’s economy ranked 28th in the world in nominal gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund. Its nominal GDP per capita ($55,329 per annum) ranked 14th.

History

Establishment of the State of Israel

The founding of Israel fulfilled the aims of the Zionist movement, which had sought to establish an autonomous state in the Jews' ancient homeland of Israel, also known as Palestine, since the late 19th century. During World War I, Britain took control of Palestine from the collapsing Ottoman Empire and in 1917 the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, which expressed support for a Jewish national homeland in the area. British administration continued under a League of Nations mandate during the 1920s and ‘30s, during which time 350,000 Jews escaped Europe to Palestine. In this period, the Jewish population created political and military structures towards the goal of statehood, as well as the underlying basis for a national economy (such as kibbutzim, or community farms, and the Histadrut labor federation).

The founding of Israel fulfilled the aims of the Zionist movement, which had sought to establish an autonomous state in the Jews' ancient homeland of Israel, also known as Palestine, since the late 19th century.

The Holocaust — Nazi Germany’s systematic murder of six million European Jews during World War II — led to a renewed urgency to establish a Jewish state despite objections by Arab countries. Jewish militias, Arab military groups and British forces all were clashing as the UN General Assembly in November 1947 approved a plan to divide Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem, at its center, as an internationally administered zone. Jewish leaders agreed to the plan and declared the independent state of Israel on May 14, 1948 (see Resources for Israel’s Declaration of Independence). Initially in Tel Aviv, the capital was made Jerusalem by the Knesset in 1950, although most countries maintained their embassies in Tel Aviv. The United Kingdom’s mandate ended.

Military, Economic and Diplomatic Struggles

Arab countries and Arab Palestinian leaders rejected the partition plan and the establishment of Israel, setting the stage for ongoing conflict. In its first 25 years of existence, there were four brief, intense wars between Israel and its Arab neighbors (1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973). These ended through UN and US diplomacy that sought to prevent a wider confrontation during the Cold War.

In the first war, four Arab states invaded Israel soon after its declaration of statehood. Israel’s armed forces repelled the Arab armies and secured a UN-brokered armistice in January 1949. The armistice left Egypt in control of the Gaza Strip and Sinai while Transjordan (later renamed Jordan) had control over the West Bank, the major area the UN mandate mapped for a Palestinian state, as well as East Jerusalem. Jordan annexed all its territories in 1950.

Over the course of both the civil and external wars, an estimated 700,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes, often by force, in what Palestinians call the Naqba (or “catastrophe”). Most of those displaced were resettled in permanent refugee camps across the region.

Israeli militias had previously defeated Palestinian militias in a civil war-type conflict from 1947 to 1948. Over the course of both the civil and external wars, an estimated 700,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes, often by force, in what Palestinians call the Naqba (or “catastrophe”). Most of those displaced were resettled in permanent refugee camps across the region while many who tried to return to their homes were prevented from doing so.

In the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel launched a preemptive strike before a planned Egyptian attack and seized the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip. When Jordan and Syria also attacked, Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights (along Syria's border) prior to a cease-fire.

In 1973, Arab countries launched a surprise attack on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. Israel initially suffered serious losses, but the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ultimately rebuffed the advances, leading to a US-brokered cease-fire. Israel retained control of the occupied territories. In 1980, Israel annexed East Jerusalem and in 1981 it established de facto annexation of the Golan Heights, neither of which was recognized internationally.

After 1973, all of the Arab countries remained in states of war or hostility, while Israel also confronted serious security challenges from a number of terrorist and militia groups supported by Arab states and the Soviet Union, all pledged to destroy Israel by carrying out varying levels of terrorist or military campaigns. These included the Palestine Liberation Organization, also the main political organization of Palestinians, as well as Islamic Jihad, Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement), and Hezbollah in Lebanon (see also below).

The Camp David and Oslo Peace Accords

[Anwar Sadat's] initiative led to the signing in 1978 of the Camp David peace accords, brokered by US President Jimmy Carter. It was the first peace treaty between Israel and one of its Arab neighbors.

By 1977, President Anwar al-Sadat decided to end Egypt’s state of war with Israel and made a dramatic trip to Jerusalem to meet Israeli leaders. His initiative led to the signing in 1978 of the Camp David peace accords, brokered by US President Jimmy Carter. It was the first peace treaty between Israel and one of its Arab neighbors. As part of the agreement, the Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt. But region-wide peace efforts ended when Sadat was assassinated in 1979 by the Islamic Jihad terrorist group.

Terrorist actions were also directed at Israeli citizens, often by another group, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), with the aim of preventing peace with Israel. When PLO guerrillas increasingly struck civilian and military targets from southern Lebanon, the IDF invaded the country in 1982 to end the attacks. Its forces left Lebanon in 2000, leaving southern Lebanon controlled by a radical Shiite Muslim militia called Hezbollah (“Party of God”), which is backed by Iran and Syria.

[T]he 1993 Oslo Peace Accords . . . provided for PLO recognition of Israel and the PLO’s renunciation of terrorism. In exchange, Israel withdrew IDF forces from some areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and agreed to establishment of autonomy under a PLO-led Palestinian Authority.

In 1991, four years after a Palestinian intifada (“uprising” in Arabic) began against Israel’s military occupation, the PLO agreed to negotiations with Israel, which was then governed by the right-wing Likud party. These talks continued with a Labor government and led to the signing of the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords, which provided for PLO recognition of Israel and the PLO’s renunciation of terrorism. In exchange, Israel withdrew IDF forces from some areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and agreed to establishment of autonomy under a PLO-led Palestinian Authority. The terms envisioned an eventual Palestinian state through further negotiations. Afterwards, in 1994, King Hussein of Jordan signed a bilateral peace treaty with Israel.

Two Failed Agreements

Labor Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish extremist opposed to the Oslo Accords. The Likud party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, then won early elections. In response to renewed terrorist violence, the government stopped implementation of the Oslo Accords.

Likud was defeated in 1999 elections for the Knesset. The Labor Party-led coalition government supported further peace negotiations. Prime Minister Ehud Barack agreed in 2000 to a comprehensive settlement brokered by US President Bill Clinton but the PLO leader, Yasir Arafat, rejected it. A second intifada broke out sparked by more violent groups, Islamic Jihad and Hamas, as well as extremist factions of the PLO. Over five years, terrorist attacks and suicide bombers killed nearly two thousand Israeli citizens, while counter-terrorism actions killed thousands of Palestinians. Attacks subsided after Israel erected a security barrier, much of it on occupied Palestinian territory, and adopted harsh security measures that remain in force until today.

After Arafat’s death in 2004, Mahmoud Abbas, considered more moderate, was elected president of the Palestinian Authority. In 2005, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of the Likud Party unilaterally withdrew Israeli forces and Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip in a policy called “security through disengagement.” Opposition to the policy within Likud led Sharon to create a new party, Kadima (“Forward” in Hebrew). Despite Sharon suffering a debilitating stroke prior to the 2006 election, Kadima won a plurality of seats to form a new government and continue the policy, even after the more violent Hamas, which rejected the Oslo Accords, gained control over the Gaza Strip.

Sharon’s successor, Ehud Olmert, held secret talks with Mahmoud Abbas in 2007-08. Both claimed later that they came near a final settlement on Palestinian statehood. Before concluding the agreement, however, Olmert resigned in 2008 due to corruption charges (see Multiparty System below).

The Peace Process Halted

After elections held in 2009, the peace negotiations ended. Neither Benjamin Netanyahu, returning to power as prime minister, nor Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would meet the other’s preconditions. (Likud demanded recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinian Authority demanded a halt to Israeli settlements on the West Bank.) A US initiative led to renewed talks in August 2013 but they broke down by 2014.

Since then, there has been no serious resumption of the peace process. When the United States formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017 under the Trump Administration, the Palestinian Authority broke ties with the U.S. and rejected it as a mediator for negotiations. A separate “quartet” group (the UN, US, EUand Russian Federation) proposed a “road map” for peace negotiations that neither side accepted.

Netanyahu has led Israel as Prime Minister for most of this period (see also Multiparty System below). In that time, he has resisted a two-state solution on grounds that a Palestinian state could not guarantee Israel’s security and that Jewish Israelis have a right to settle in Palestinian territory as part of Biblical (or Greater) Israel. Mahmoud Abbas has remained president of the Palestinian Authority, which remains in formal administrative control over the West Bank, without holding elections since 2009. He has called for international pressure on Israel to negotiate on Palestinian statehood and the “right to return” for descendants of those displaced in 1947–48.

The continued military occupation has resulted in ongoing violent clashes within Israel, including Jerusalem, and increasingly in areas of Jewish settlements. There have been killings by both sides, Israeli military strikes in Palestinian territories, and the wholesale denial of rights and due process by the Israeli government for Palestinians on the West Bank.

Settlements are an increasing impediment to any peace process. After Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, Labor governments approved settlements by Israeli citizens in border areas, mostly around Jerusalem, on grounds of security. Likud-led governments annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 and authorized settlements beyond border areas. Netanyahu’s governments have expanded settlements much farther into the West Bank as settler parties played larger roles in government (see below).

The continued military occupation has resulted in ongoing violent clashes within Israel, including Jerusalem, and increasingly in areas of Jewish settlements. There have been killings by both sides, Israeli military strikes in Palestinian territories, and the wholesale denial of rights and due process by the Israeli government for Palestinians on the West Bank.

Security Threats Continued

In the last decade, Israel continued to face military and terrorist threats.

Despite an armistice reached in 2006, the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah has launched missile and armed attacks near the border, including in April 2023. After the Palestinian extremist group Hamas won elections in 2006 and took full military control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, it launched repeated rocket attacks against Israel, the most serious being in 2014 when 10,000 rockets were fired at Israeli civilian centers. Most were repulsed by the Iron Dome air defense system. In response, the IDF carried out military campaigns aimed at military sites purposely located in civilian areas. These resulted in large civilian casualties. Rocket attacks have continued intermittently since 2014.

Major Arab neighbors like Iran and Syria remain in states of hostility or war with Israel while other states, like Saudi Arabia, still refuse to recognize its existence. The extremist groups Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other factions, armed by Iran and Syria, remain pledged to destroy Israel. Iran continues to pursue nuclear weapons capability and its leaders repeatedly threaten to destroy Israel. However, agreements brokered by the United States in 2020 known as the Abraham Accords expanded normalization of relations and trade ties with Israel by Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Morocco.

Multiparty System

Throughout numerous wars, acts of terrorism, political crises and many internal and social conflicts, Israel has remained a multi-party democracy ─ the only such example in the Middle East. But the country faces serious challenges to its democratic system due to a fracturing of political parties, corruption charges against a sitting prime minister, the denial of full citizenship rights to Arab Israelis, and the undermining of the country’s democratic character arising from its military occupation of Palestinian territories, which has now lasted more than five decades.

Throughout numerous wars, acts of terrorism, political crises and many internal and social conflicts, Israel has remained a multi-party democracy ─ the only such example in the Middle East.

Freedom of association, assembly, speech and religion are largely respected within Israel, including for minority citizens. Its media are independent and represent diverse political views and internet access is unhindered. The rule of law until now functioned through an independent judiciary to limit the abuse of state power and temper, if not prevent, discriminatory state policies and land confiscations in occupied territories. However, a political crisis has arisen over attempts by the government to control the judiciary and thus limit interference in its policies (see Current Issues below). Freedom House continues to rank Israel as Free, but its ratings have declined in recent years, and may decline further with passage of the “judicial reform.”

Israel’s Political System

Israel has a parliamentary system with a 120-seat unicameral legislature, called the Knesset. It elects a president as head-of-state for a single seven-year term. Having largely ceremonial powers, the president often acts as a mediator in political disputes.

[Israel] faces serious challenges to its democratic system due to a fracturing of political parties, corruption charges against a sitting prime minister, the denial of full citizenship rights to Arab Israelis, and the undermining of the country’s democratic character arising from its military occupation of Palestinian territories, which has now lasted more than five decades.

Prime ministers were directly elected for a brief period between 1996 and 2001. Otherwise, the president has held the formal authority to nominate a prime minister to form a government. Usually, this is the head of the leading party in elections, but this depends on being able to form a majority coalition. Executive power is exercised by the prime minister and the cabinet, who are collectively approved by parliament. The Knesset then has power to remove a cabinet member singularly or the government entirely in no confidence votes.
Members of the Knesset are elected to four-year terms, but new elections are called when a government loses a vote of confidence and parties are unable to form a new majority coalition. In elections, voters choose among national party or coalition bloc lists according to a proportional system. The threshold for entering parliament was raised in 2014 from 2 to 3.25 percent.

From 1949 to 2022, twenty-five elections have been held with between ten and fifteen parties represented in the Knesset. Since 2000, this diverse multi-party system has led to many new parties and more recently to unstable coalitions, creating political instability

Israel’s politics were dominated by two main ideological parties after independence (Labor on the left and Likud on the right). This reflected the two main currents of the Zionist movement (with Likud representing Revisionist Zionism). At the same time, many other major and smaller parties, including personality-based, religious and Arab-Israeli parties, have been a constant presence in Israeli politics.

From 1949 to 2022, twenty-five elections have been held with between ten and fifteen parties represented in the Knesset. Since 2000, this diverse multi-party system has led to many new parties and more recently to unstable coalitions, creating political instability (see Current Issues).

Israeli Elections, Parties and Coalitions: A Brief History

From 1948 to 1977, Israel was governed by a succession of coalition governments led and dominated by the left Labor Party and its socialist antecedents. These generally represented the dominant Ashkenazi population. The right-wing Likud party, which combined Ashkenazi and Sephardic support, formed a government for the first time in 1977. Afterwards, there was an alternation of Likud-led, Labor-led, and Likud-Labor unity governments.

Direct elections for prime minister were held from 1996 to 2001. Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu won the first election; Labor leader Ehud Barak won the second in 1999; and a new Likud leader, Ariel Sharon, won in 2001. Direct elections were abandoned thereafter.

After elections held in 2003, a new dynamic emerged. At first, Sharon formed a Likud-led coalition with four right-wing secular and religious parties. But his leadership was challenged due to his policy of “security through disengagement” and the forced withdrawal of settlements, together with the IDF, from the Gaza Strip (see above). Sharon, still highly popular, left Likud in 2005 and created a new centrist party, Kadima (Forward), to carry out his new policy. Leading members of both Likud and Labor left their parties to join.

Sharon had a debilitating stroke prior to the 2006 election, but Kadima still won an unprecedented 22 percent for a new party. Now led by Sharon’s deputy, Ehud Olmert, it formed a center-left coalition with Labor and smaller parties.

In 2008, Olmert resigned as prime minister after being indicted for corruption involving property deals that he oversaw as Mayor of Jerusalem. He was the first Israeli prime minister to be indicted or convicted on criminal charges.

In 2008, Olmert resigned as prime minister after being indicted for corruption involving property deals that he oversaw as Mayor of Jerusalem. He was the first Israeli prime minister to be indicted or convicted on criminal charges. The Supreme Court overturned the most serious bribery conviction in 2015 on procedural grounds, but Olmert served 18 months in prison on other charges.

Tzipi Livni, who had led peace negotiations as foreign minister in 2007-08 (see also above), headed the caretaker government as prime minister and won a narrow second victory for Kadima over Likud in 2009 elections (each won 22 percent of the vote). But an extremist party, Yisrael Beiteinu (Our Home), calling for expulsion of the Arab population from Israel, came in third (12 percent), while Labor had its worst showing in its history (10 percent).

The Role of Smaller Parties

Throughout Israel's history, smaller parties had a large role in forming governments and tended to complicate the politics and policies of coalitions by requiring the major parties to satisfy specific special interests or policies.

Throughout Israel's history, smaller parties had a large role in forming governments and tended to complicate the politics and policies of coalitions by requiring the major parties to satisfy specific special interests or policies. Two Orthodox religious parties, United Torah Judaism and Shas, are the longest-lasting, usually netting 10 to 15 percent of the vote. They receive concessions to what is called the “religious establishment,” such as Sabbath laws, subsidies for religious schools and military exemption for religious study, in exchange for joining either left- or right-led coalitions.

More recently, nationalist parties favoring expansion of settlements in occupied territories and rejecting a two-state solution became linchpins to right-led coalition governments. Personality-based and splinter parties on the model of Kadima (see above) created a new centrist bloc that supports a two-state solution to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict and ending concessions to religious and nationalist parties. Meanwhile, the two left parties, Labor and a small peace party, Meretz, declined precipitously.

Three Arab-Israeli parties (United Arab List, Hadash and Balad) have had strong, if not fully proportional, representation, netting 8 to 13 seats. But these parties were not included in governing coalitions due to their general opposition to Zionism and public sympathy for the political aspirations of Palestinians in occupied territories. They thus had little influence on national policy.

Attempts by Jewish politicians to ban Arab Israeli parties were rebuffed by the government's legal adviser. When a law allowing such bans passed the Knesset, it was rejected by the Supreme Court, which also acted to reinstate a leader of one party to the Knesset after being expelled. In 2021, for the first time, an Arab Israeli party was included in a governing coalition (see Current Issues below).

Recent Elections and Challenges

After its narrow victory in 2009 elections, Kadima failed to put together a majority coalition and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud formed a government with the fourth-place Labor party. While the unity coalition lasted four years, it further split and weakened the Labor Party.

The 2013 elections were equally fractured. Likud led with 23 percent of the vote and the Labor Party came in third (11 percent). A new centrist party, Yesh Atid (“There Is a Future”), surged to 15 percent while another that joined former Kadima and Labor leaders won 5 percent. The pro-settler Jewish Home and the two religious parties together won 23 percent.

Netanyahu formed an unlikely coalition joining Likud with the two centrist parties and the secular but far-right Jewish Home. This put the religious parties in full opposition for the first time and allowed the government to eliminate the unpopular exemption for military service. But with divergent views on the peace process, the coalition broke apart after the collapse of US-brokered peace negotiations in 2014 (see above).

In the early elections held in March 2015, Likud equaled its previous result (23 percent). A new left-Labor coalition called Zionist Union received 18.5 percent, while Yesh Atid split the centrist vote with a new party, Kulanu (“All of Us”), each getting 8 percent. For the first time, the Arab-Israeli parties united in a Joint List on a platform to address community needs within Israel and came in an unprecedented third place (10.5 percent).

A Tumultuous Period & the Nation-State Law

Netanyahu, adopting a harder chauvinist stance, was elected Prime Minister in 2015 as head of a slim right-wing majority coalition that included the two nationalist parties and two religious parties, which regained their previous concessions. Despite government stability ─ the coalition lasted a full four year-term ─ this was a tumultuous period that saw increased violence by settlers against Palestinians, violence by Palestinians against the military occupation, public investigation of Netanyahu on corruption charges, and increased discrimination of Arab-Israelis.

Most notable, however, was adoption of a new Basic Law in 2018, “Israel-the Nation State of the Jewish People.” Israel does not have a formal constitution. Its foundational law consists of the Declaration of Independence (see Resources) and what are called Basic Laws (13 thus far), which may be passed by majority but traditionally were passed with supermajority or consensus support.

The new law, passed by a slim majority (62-55), formalizes a second-class citizenship for Arab Israelis and appears to lay the basis for further annexation of occupied territory. While the Declaration of Independence clearly defines Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, the new Nation State law conflicts with the Declaration by not affirming equal citizenship for Arabs and by making Arabic a non-official language. (Netanyahu stated the purpose of the bill was to affirm explicitly that “Israel is not a state of all its citizens.”) The law also asserts that “the development of Jewish settlement [is] a national value.” This, too, contradicts the Declaration’s commitment to the Charter of the United Nations and the original UN Resolution’s establishment of two states with specific, delineated territories. 

Current Issues

Since 1996, Israel’s politics have been dominated by Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud Party, which is defined by free market policies, a hardline security platform, expansion of settlements, and increasing chauvinism towards Arab Israelis. Over this period, Netanyahu was prime minister for seventeen years, longer than anyone in Israel’s history. Netanyahu moderated his policies when in coalition governments with left and center parties, but has been more extreme leading hard right-wing coalition governments since 2015 ─ interrupted only by an eighteen-month period in 2021-22 (see below).

A period of political instability began when the Attorney General announced an investigation of Netanyahu for corruption. He was formally indicted in November 2019 on two corruption charges (receiving illegal gifts for government favors and using government influence for positive media coverage). Unlike a prior prime minister, Netanyahu refused to resign after the indictment and accused the Attorney General of being part of a “deep state” conspiring against him.

Following reports of the corruption investigation, two inconclusive elections were held in April and September 2019 that mainly pitted Likud against a centrist coalition called Blue and White (the colors of the Israeli flag). After a third election in March 2020, one Blue and White leader, Benny Gantz, agreed to a unity government, with Netanyahu as prime minister. But the narrowly formed government fell after six months when it failed to pass a budget.

A fourth election in March 2021 led to an unlikely anti-Netanyahu alliance. The centrist Yesh Atid and a nationalist party leader, Naftali Bennett, formed a one-seat majority coalition with two other centrist parties, the secular nationalist parties, Labor-Meretz and, for the first time, a new Arab-Israeli party, Ra’am. It agreed to participate after receiving commitments for new investments in Arab-Israeli communities. The coalition government succeeded in passing a budget for the first time in four years, but it fell in June 2022 when the Arab-Israeli cabinet member withdrew over new settlements in the West Bank.

The November 2022 election, the fifth within four years, resulted in a clearer victory for Likud. It ran on a chauvinist anti-Arab Israeli platform in public alliance with the Religious Zionist Party, a far-right settler party, and Jewish Strength, whose origins were as a far-right terrorist movement.

Likud garnered its usual 23 percent of the vote while the Blue and White centrist bloc split (Yesh Atid got 18 percent and Gantz’s National Unity Party received 9 percent). The two religious parties, increasingly extreme in their platforms, got an unprecedented 19 percent total, while the Religious Zionist party and Jewish Strength joint list, advocating full annexation of the West Bank, won 5 percent. Arab-Israeli parties divided over participation in the earlier coalition and only two entered parliament with 4 percent each. Labor also barely entered parliament at 4 percent. The Meretz peace party did not.

Netanyahu formed an extremist right-wing government with both religious parties and the nationalist settler coalition. Early actions indicated its nature. Jewish Strength leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, once rejected for military service due to political extremism, was named minister of national security. He quickly instigated a violent confrontation with Muslims over the long-standing but unresolved issue of Jewish prayer at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which is also the site of the destroyed Second Temple, venerated in Judaism. The leader of the Religious Zionist Party, Bezalel Smotrich, was named to two of the highest posts. Early in his tenure, he called for a West Bank village’s “eradication” after violence incited by settlers against Palestinians.

A New Crisis Tests Israel’s Democracy

In creating his coalition, Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to push immediately a “judiciary reform law” backed by the extreme nationalist and religious parties. The effort has led to the largest public crisis in Israel’s history. The proposed set of laws would give the government dominance over nominations of judges, allow the Knesset to overrule Supreme Court decisions by simple majority, and restrict the basis for judicial Supreme Court review.

Given the lack of a constitution and a unicameral parliament, the “reforms” effectively remove any limit or check on a Knesset majority’s power. This is particularly significant for Arab Israeli citizens and West Bank and Jerusalem Palestinian residents since the Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, is the main recourse against discriminatory actions, seizures of property and expansion of settlements. One impetus for “judicial reform” by ultra-nationalist parties was a 2015 court decision requiring destruction of unauthorized settlements that had illegally seized Palestinian land. But the effect reaches all Israeli society. One impetus for the reform by religious parties was a 2013 decision allowing women to pray freely at the Western Wall, another venerated place of worship that the religious establishment had previously restricted to men.

The government’s power grab was widely seen as a direct threat to democracy by giving unlimited power to temporary majorities. Massive demonstrations took place in cities across the country continuing every week from January to April 2023 to protest the bill. When Netanyahu dismissed his own defense minister in late April for voicing opposition to the reform, 500,000 protesters immediately went to the streets.

The strength of the protests and a threatened general strike caused Netanyahu to delay the law’s consideration and rescind the Defense Minister’s dismissal. In doing so, however, he agreed to Ben-Gvir’s demand to create a National Guard under his control (against the wishes of military and police services).

After three months, Netanyahu rejected the president’s mediation effort and broke negotiations with opposition parties. He then allowed his Justice Minister to force consideration of “judicial reform” in parts. The first part, removing use of the “reasonableness standard” as a basis for judicial review was passed despite ongoing mass protests, pledges by reserves to resign from military service, threats of a general strike and appeals against passage by all living former prime ministers, defense ministers, intelligence chiefs and Supreme Court justices.

The standard, which has a strict basis in law, is common in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries (among others) to review government actions and laws. Its last application by the Supreme Court was rejecting Netanyahu’s choice for Finance Minister, Aryeh Deri, a longtime ally in the Shas party who had just been convicted for a second time of tax evasion. This was judged an unreasonable appointment by the Court. The removal of the standard allows the government to act arbitrarily, including to appoint Deri again as Finance Minister, to restrict (or remove) the Attorney General prosecuting him on corruption, to pass a law banning Arab-Israeli parties (one is already submitted), or even annex parts (or all) of the West Bank.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak warned that forcing passage of the bill threatens to end the “democratic chapter” of Israel’s history. Israelis now await the Supreme Court’s own consideration of the law but citizens have continued their protests and plan further actions as other parts of the reform package are being considered.

Israel’s Democracy at 75 Years

After 75 years, including more than 50 years of military occupation of Palestinian territories, Israel’s democracy faces large challenges.

The large expansion of settlements in the West Bank makes a two-state solution less likely (see article in Resources). At the same time, continued military occupation leaves around 3.2 million Palestinians stateless, without equal rights. Domestic and international human rights organizations, former prime ministers, and other high officials have criticized the settlements policy of right-wing governments as moving Israel towards a form of apartheid.

Israel Defense Force and police actions in the West Bank and Jerusalem in response to violence have generally resulted in more violence by Israelis and Palestinians alike as well as increased human rights violations of Palestinians. (In 2022, more than 4,600 Palestinians from the occupied territories were being held in Israeli facilities without due process on security grounds.)

Benjamin Netanyahu’s own leadership challenges Israeli democracy as he continues in power despite ongoing prosecution for corruption. While doing so he has pushed through Basic Laws and other laws undermining democratic institutions on narrow majorities, without consensus. These and other actions have led to a decline in ratings in the Freedom in the World survey.

Still, even as the current government has created a crisis of democracy, it assumed office following the country’s twenty-fifth consecutive multiparty election over seventy-five years. Nearly half the seats in the Knesset are held by opposition parties. The previous 2021 election resulted in a historic coalition representing the country’s ideologically, ethnically and religiously diverse society.

Large demonstrations against the current government’s attempt to take over the judiciary, as well as other actions, show the vibrancy of Israel’s civil society in response to a threat to Israel’s foundational democratic structure. At the same time, these manifestations of protest have been organized without substantial inclusion of the Arab Israeli community, which views the “defense of democracy” as excluding them given a lack of protection by the Supreme Court. (For example, the court declined to overrule the Nation State Law.) As a result, the demonstrations do not reflect the many domestic efforts at promoting Jewish-Arab co-existence within Israel, nor continued plurality support for a two-state solution.