"No theory of civil disobedience can justify stopping the state or paralyzing the mechanisms responsible for law enforcement. No moral argument can justify burning tires on the roads, which seriously endangers the lives of passengers on the road. No philosophical argument can justify delaying a mother who needs to go to the hospital, or delaying a fire truck on its way to a fire. No legal argument for 'civil disobedience' allows for violent behavior that severely harms human life."
Just a matter of time
These beautiful and important words were written by former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, in a moment I will detail in what context he wrote them. I bring them here today after a protester almost lost her life yesterday when she stepped onto the road where cars were speeding. After those who swore the oath of office, they decided to break it, harming patients, in the name of a political strike. After a 10-year-old boy was detained last week with a life-threatening allergic attack for 50 minutes as protesters blocked the way to the intensive care unit. After an ambulance arrived last week at a young man injured in the accident 20 minutes late. The writing is on the wall. It's only a matter of time before the protest, which has gotten out of hand, takes lives. This is the moment when the leaders of the demonstrations must show responsibility and restrain the nature of the demonstrations, a moment before the abyss, a moment before civil war.
Maktazit was activated in Ayalon
Manage the dispute in public with tolerance and understanding
"There is a serious disagreement among the Israeli public," Aharon Barak continued. "This dispute must be managed with tolerance and understanding. Freedom of expression must be allowed for every opinion and position. They deserve the public controversies to be examined in the marketplace of ideas. This is the case in periods of calm, so in periods of tension and disagreement. At the same time, public disagreement must be conducted within the framework of the existing tools (...) rhetoric of democracy and human rights, but acts of anarchy and violation of human rights through their actions. To this no democratic state should agree (...). This is the case in every democratic country, certainly in the State of Israel. We are a young democracy. Our democratic roots are not deep. Everyone must do everything in their power to preserve our democracy. If we don't protect her, she won't protect us."
Tool experiment
Barak explains, "Preserving democracy requires preserving freedom of expression. Preserving freedom of expression requires preserving democracy. The use of democratic and human rights rhetoric as a basis for activity that harms democracy and human rights is a tested prescription for the destruction of democracy from within it. True, democracy recognizes the right of expression and demonstration of every person in it; It will do everything to respect this right, but democracy will not allow the rights it grants to be used to bring about self-destruction. Democracy should also be tolerant of the intolerant, but democracy should not allow its very elimination to be tolerated."
Ayalon blocked to traffic, photo: None
Barak wrote this in a High Court decision in 2005. Almost 20 years have passed since then, but it seems that things remain beautiful, important and valid today. Justices Cheshin, Rivlin, Procaccia and Arbel agreed with Barak, and unanimously sent Shai Malka and Ariel Wengruber to detention until the end of the proceedings. What were the two suspected? By organizing road blockades, encouraging insubordination and calling for civil disobedience to fight the disengagement plan. The two only did a "tool experiment" and blocked roads once, and already found themselves behind bars. It is strange that so far we have not seen arrests until the end of the proceedings for the organizers of road blockades.
Not just an Israeli debate
"Our democracy is a defensive democracy," Barak explained the decision, "it defends itself against its enemies from outside. It must defend itself against those who rebel against it from within. This duty lies with all of us: on all branches of government, on all parties and bodies, on all judges."
Demonstration in Ayalon,
The demonstrators will come and claim that they are struggling to preserve democracy. I believe them they feel that way. This is also how the protesters felt the disengagement. After all, the government had literally run them over, it wasn't just a fear of a slippery slope. But democracy cannot be defended violently, it is simply an oxymoron, as the honorable judges explained. This is the direct route to anarchy and civil war.
How sad to see how the protesters, many of them with good intentions and love for the country, are swept up by irresponsible leaders who have taken them captive of consciousness, who sell them fears and false imaginations. The reasonableness grounds or the method of selecting judges or the Override Clause or the role of the Attorney General are all important issues within a basket of democratic values. These are questions that concern many countries around the world, and all the current proposals to regulate relations between the three branches – legislative, executive, and judicial – have examples from other democratic countries. Either way, the disputes must be decided democratically, through public debate, at the ballot box, in the Knesset. It is unlikely to burn the country because of a dispute over the grounds of reasonableness.
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