From 2010
No society is perfect, but democratic nations are able to examine themselves and learn from their errors. Strong countries are not afraid of admitting mistakes.
Democracy’s underlying premise – that government is the servant of the governed – relies on a commitment to self-scrutiny. Unfortunately, in Israel the lack of a proper culture of accountability has been demonstrated in several recent developments.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s extraordinary – and eventually successful – efforts to avert a parliamentary committee of inquiry into the Carmel fire disaster, is a case in point. In Israeli parliamentary democracy, the government is supported by a coalition with a majority in the Knesset, making it very difficult to pass inconvenient measures that would scrutinize government actions, a testament to Israel’s weak culture of accountability.
Netanyahu’s intervention is a further blow to the Knesset’s ability to exercise a check on government excess and incompetence.
Unfortunately, that is not the first time a governing coalition has undermined parliamentary independence. The squabbles between Netanyahu and MK Reuven Rivlin, the Knesset speaker (Likud), over the ability to debate and amend economic reform legislation are a demonstration of that trend.
#palestine #Israel #Occupation #Apartheid #Politics
