Israel's Democracy Triumphs

Israel’s Democracy Triumphs

By Sherwin Pomerantz

Yesterday Israel’s democracy actually functioned the way it is supposed to and all of us living here should be proud of that.

You will recall that recently the Central Elections Committee made a decision to disqualify Balad Party MK Hanan Zoabi from running in the January 22^nd election for the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.   Their decision was based on the claim that her participation in the Mavi Marmara incident in May 2010 among other things indicated her support for terrorism and, therefore, she should not be allowed to run for the Knesset.

Now let me clear about my position here.  As far as this writer is concerned Hanan Zoabi is a traitor to Israel and she should have been tried for treason for participating in an illegal attempt by foreign forces to break what was and is a legal naval blockade of Gaza by Israel.  But the powers that be here in Israel chose not to do so, for whatever reasons of their own.  I believe that was a mistake as when a member of the legislature who swears to uphold the laws of the State of Israel and later participates in an event that is against the laws of the country and is a clear violation of that person’s allegiance to the sovereign state he or she is sworn to defend (i.e. the definition of treason) that person should be properly prosecuted for a treasonous act.

But Israel chose not to do so and, instead, the Central Elections Committee tried to achieve what the state decided not to pursue.  In a democratic society with free elections no such body has the authority to bar a person from running for election as this is one of the mainstays of a free and democratic society unless they are in violation of the rules and regulations governing such candidacy.  To be fair, I also believe it was wrong to bar Rabbi Meir Kahane from running as well when Israel did so some years ago.

The supreme court on Sunday, in a unanimous decision, supported the challenge of Zoabi to the decision of the Central Elections Committee as well they should have.  There is a process to preventing her from running in an election and the process, in this case, would have been to try her for treason.  Failing that, the state cannot then try to use alternate means to achieve that same goal. 

So this really was a victory for democracy even though the papers today talk about those who “lost” the battle now being intent on passing legislation that would allow the Knesset to act differently in such cases.  Such legislation, if passed, would be yet another nail in the coffin of Israeli democracy.

Once again, Zoabi is bad news and acts in a treasonous manner against the interests of the State of Israel under the guise of defending the rights of minorities.  She deserves to be punished but she also deserves the protection of the democratic system.

John Adams once said “Democracy never lasts long.  It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself.  There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”  Well, at least this time, happily the suicide attempt failed.