It's pushback, and it's a good sign

The avalanche of harsh legislative initiatives in the current Knesset, and the divisive public discourse accompanying it, provide ample evidence that Israeli democracy is facing grievous times.

The thankfully stalled conversion bill threatens hard-won gains toward basic religious freedoms for progressive Jewish-Israeli communities; Israeli-born children of foreign workers face the possibility of deportation; and Israel's Arab citizens - one in five Israelis! - confront ever-higher barriers to the full civic inclusion that is their right. Fundamental freedoms of thought, expression and protest, too - the lifeblood of democracy - are increasingly discouraged by the authorities, frequently supported by the popular media.

But while all this is bad enough, some of the thinkers and activists sincerely engaged in Israel's democratic struggle are inadvertently doing the cause a demoralizing disservice. They do this by conjuring up a "golden era" that never really existed, thereby implying that democracy is now in terminal decline. Such misplaced nostalgia - however understandable in the face of daily attacks at home and growing frustration with the pace of progress from abroad - only sows pessimism and even panic. This is not helpful to the shaping of an effective strategy for the long, disciplined and determined slog that is the essence of democratic society-building.

In truth, the historical trajectory of Israeli democracy is entirely different, and provides cause for greater hope, as well as an immediate redoubling of all our efforts.

For lots of glaring historical, security, cultural, psychological, demographic, economic and geopolitical reasons, Israel was "democratically challenged" from the outset. After Independence, its Arab citizens were subject to military rule. That ended in 1966, but a year later, military rule was imposed over even greater numbers of non-citizen Palestinians, which continues to this day.

One-party hegemony persisted politically until 1977, affecting multiple aspects of life, far beyond the purview of any reasonable democratic tradition. From its establishment, the human diversity characterizing both Jewish and Arab citizens was either negated or simply ignored by the ruling secular Ashkenazi elite. Prior to the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israel Defense Forces was largely beyond public criticism, and the third sector, of non-governmental organizations, without which any democracy is necessarily hollow, was virtually nonexistent. In short, many of the democratic flaws we are now working robustly to address were simply ignored.

In light of this history, the reality is that Israel's democratic journey has registered many impressive and sustained achievements during the past few decades.

Although by no means irreversible, the emergence of a large, diverse and increasingly sophisticated Israeli NGO community - in large part the fruit of possibly the most important long-term strategic investment that world Jewry, and especially North American Jewry, has made in Israeli society-building - represents democratic progress of seismic proportions.

Whether we are working toward provision of equal services for underserved communities, greater educational opportunities for all, fair access for the physically challenged, freedom of worship, equal employment opportunities for Arab citizens and other minorities or full rights for the LGBT community, there is real evidence of progress.

While we are right to be deeply concerned by the baseless and fundamentally undemocratic attacks we are currently experiencing from reactionary forces in Israel and abroad, the extent and desperation of these attacks are also indicative of the strides democracy has made.

One appropriate response to an extremely serious set of challenges is for all those committed to democracy - not to mention basic decency and civility - to redouble their efforts and to build broad democratic coalitions that effectively harness skills, energies and resources.

Understanding that the attacks we are facing are related aspects of a reactionary whole, we need to frame a wide-ranging, confident and inclusive civic initiative that will be ideologically and culturally attractive to the overwhelming majority of fair-minded Israeli citizens, and address their particular and common fears and interests.

Specifically, we need to understand that the five big internal divides - Jewish-Arab, Jewish-Jewish, Arab-Arab, immigrant-veteran and socioeconomic - are all interconnected aspects of a larger struggle to forge a fairer, inclusive sense of shared citizenship and greater comfort with the rich diversity that characterizes Israeli society.

Such an initiative needs to be bold, big and ongoing, employing an innovative model for deep and sustainable change. It needs to bring together partners from the government, business and NGO sectors and harness the historical experience and resources of world Jewry and other international stakeholders who care about shaping a strong, inclusive, fair and democratic homeland for the Jewish people.

This effort must also be multi-level, incorporating educational, volunteer and government-relations projects that generate measurable and sustainable change. Imagine for example the activation of thousands of young volunteers across our deep internal divides and an "Israeli birthright" summer program - building familiarity and lasting friendships between young Israelis of all backgrounds. Imagine a new generation of young journalists of all backgrounds, well-informed and sensitized to the issues of our diverse society, and a government agency taking real responsibility for forging positive inter-group relations.

To be truly effective, such an initiative also requires the backing of a professional media campaign that exploits new technologies and sophisticated measurement tools. This will be critical in rebuilding the confidence of all those committed to the emergence of a fairer and more open society in Israel and help us gain many more partners for our just cause.

 

Mike Prashker is the founder and director of Merchavim, the Institute for the Advancement of Shared Citizenship in Israel. He is currently involved in the launch of the cooperative, society-building initiative Kulanana.