By Daniel Sokatch
SAN FRANCISCO — Israel has a new government, and, for the first time in 12 years, it is not headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. In that respect, today feels like a brand-new day.
The legacy of now-former Prime Minister Netanyahu is complex, and we will leave it to the historians to evaluate it in its totality. But one thing is clear: Netanyahu changed Israel in some deeply worrying ways.
The list is long: Netanyahu engaged in divisive, xenophobic, racist rhetoric; he built Israel’s first “imperial prime ministership,” marginalizing the Knesset and attempting to consolidate power in the top job; he promoted and worked to pass anti-democratic laws aimed at eroding the status of Palestinian citizens and people seeking asylum in Israel; and he regularly attempted to intimidate human rights organizations. We must not forget that he was also indicted on three criminal counts of corruption and attempted to undermine the justice system in the face of those indictments.
Netanyahu has been relegated to the opposition, at least for now, but his legacy will reverberate for years. It will take a lot of work to undo what he has done.
This new day of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid’s “change coalition” comes with real opportunities and complex risks. On the one hand, this new government opens doors to positive change that have been closed for over a decade. Cabinet ministers and Members of Knesset who share our values now hold positions of real power. The New Israel Fund and our grantees are ready to work with these leaders to make change on issues we care about.
No less revolutionary is that, for the first time in Israel’s history, an independent Palestinian-Israeli party will sit in the government. This is a precedent that cannot be undone. Palestinian representatives will no longer be related to as token partners, but rather as power brokers.
Their inclusion in this coalition is a major victory for the legitimization of Arab citizens as full participants in Israel’s political process, and a win for democracy.
The coalition deal itself contains the promise of a better future for Israel’s Arab citizens. It includes a freeze of the Kaminetz Law that aggressively targets and fines illegal building in Israel, disproportionately affecting Arab citizens, as well as the allocation of unprecedented government funding for Israel’s Arab communities: 52 billion shekels ($16 billion dollars) over the next few years. According to Haaretz, the largest government-backed investment in the Arab community until now was just 15 billion shekels. It is certainly a new day.
But this coalition – even with its inclusion of Palestinian citizens and left-wing parties like Labor and Meretz – is in no way a “left-wing” government, despite Netanyahu’s frantic accusations to the contrary. Prime Minister Bennett, after all, is a pro-annexationist former head of the settler Yesha Council. He has built his political career in part by attacking Netanyahu from the right.
Bennett’s number two – Ayelet Shaked – tried to circumscribe the judicial independence of Israel’s High Court of Justice while serving as Justice Minister in a previous coalition. She demanded and received a spot on the judicial selection committee so that she can continue to wield control over judges appointed to the Court. And though she is no longer Justice Minister, her first statement as Israel’s new Interior Minister was an out-and-out threat against people seeking asylum in Israel: “I will return the infiltrators to their lands,” she announced.
Still, Shaked will be one among many ministers from the right, center, and left, each coming with their own competing viewpoints to this complicated and delicately assembled coalition. The coalition’s fragility – the fact that it is made up of the smallest possible majority of 61 MKs so that any one of them can topple it – is both its greatest challenge and its greatest strength.
This government depends on a diversity of voices, which means that it cannot govern without the input of Palestinians, rightists, centrists, and the Israeli left. Shaked will have a lot of trouble advancing the expulsion of African asylum seekers, for example, should Labor and Meretz refuse to play ball.
This is true at the highest levels as well. Yair Lapid, who is meant to take over the premiership in 2023, can effectively veto Bennett’s decisions, and vice versa. This makes for an unwieldy government, one constrained from radical moves in any direction. But it also contains the seeds of real change: a chance for new progressive policies on areas of mutual agreement, investment in Palestinian communities and the legitimization of their political participation, and the opportunity to strengthen the foundations of Israeli democracy.
With a new administration in place in Washington, and the end of the Netanyahu era, it feels as though the pushback against the global democracy recession may finally have found traction. No government is ever perfect; far from it. But this new day seems to be a good one.
So, with the dawn of a new era in Israel, NIF and our partners — Jews and Arabs alike — will hold fast to hope that this new government puts Israel on a path of justice, equality, and democracy. To ensure Israel fulfills the potential of its promise, we will be there every step of the way, no matter what.
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Daniel Sokatch is the CEO of the New Israel Fund