Netanyahu and Israeli Judicial Branch Reform Is Impacting Israel’s Economy

Recently, the scale of the protests in Israel has been overheating in various regions and cities across the country. All eyes are now upon the developments in a situation that has been the most serious internal crisis of the current government led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which is pushing for drastic judicial reforms. Protesters are demanding the cancellation of the proposed judicial reforms and Netanyahu’s resignation. As the new coalition government established after the recent election in Israel is the most right-wing government in the country’s history, this mass protest will be a major and influential factor that determines the future direction of Israel.
As political confusion surges over the controversial judicial reforms pushed by right-wing Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli shekel was down nearly 6% in February. This is the lowest value against the dollar in three years. This uncertainty of the shekel’s future monetary value will likely cause some marginal harm to its investment attractiveness. Additionally, several renowned economists, including 11 Nobel Laureates, have signed an open letter on Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to weaken Israel’s democracy and damage its judicial independence. To be specific, based on their arguments, a strong and independent judiciary is a critical part of a system of checks and balances. Undermining it would be detrimental not only to democracy but also to economic prosperity and growth. The huge uncertainty that would come out of this chaos would ultimately leave the Israeli economy in a tailspin.
On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown steadfast confidence in his stance. He also directly mentioned the plan by his new right-wing government to overhaul the judiciary, which has been under increasing criticism with potent protests. He claims his reforms will not harm the country’s economy. At a news conference with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, he said, “In recent days, I have been hearing concerns regarding the impact of judicial reform on our economic resilience. …The exact opposite is true”. As stated in his remark, he seems firm in his support for and willingness to overhaul the judiciary.
An estimated 160,000 protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv over the weekend, with tens of thousands more gathering in other cities to protest against the governing coalition’s legal overhaul. Basically, all citizens are fundamental economic resources that control the operation of the market and its workforce. This automatically creates an air of anxiety and worry about an economic slump among the country’s populace. Because of this, the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called Netanyahu’s plans an assassination of the constitution, which will turn Israel into a dictatorship. With this kind of criticism from within Israel, the Israeli public’s mood is getting darker.
Netanyahu and Israeli Judicial Branch reforms have obviously had a huge impact on the general mood of the country, especially in the field of economics. As mentioned above, the size of the protests has been getting larger and the voices have also been growing louder. The prime minister is facing pressure from the protesters; however, he is also dependent on his right-wing ministers to remain in power. I truly hope this conflict between the government and its citizens will be resolved as soon as possible.