A year ago this week, Israelis took to the streets and felt that they had saved Israeli democracy. What became known as “Gallant Night,” not because of any gallantry, but after the defense minister whose firing Benjamin Netanyahu had just announced, wasn’t exactly the victory the tens of thousands protesting around Netanyahu’s house in Jerusalem and on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv, hoped for. Netanyahu and his coalition would continue trying to assault Israel’s limited and fragile democracy. In many ways they still are. But it was still a pivotal moment.
The outpouring of public anger, backed up the next day by the announcement of a general strike, forced Netanyahu to stop in his tracks, agree to convene talks with the opposition over a more consensual judicial reform and ultimately rescind the firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant who had warned that he couldn’t vote in favor of legislation that was dividing the Israel Defense Forces.
It wasn’t the end. After a couple of months, the talks broke down, the coalition passed legislation eliminating the High Court’s use of the reasonability standard to hold the government to account and six months later, the High Court ruled, by the smallest of margins, that it was unconstitutional to deny its use. It was ultimately a victory, since the court’s powers remain unchanged, but only thanks to a majority of relatively liberal judges on the bench. Now two of them have retired and Justice Minister Yariv Levin, frustrated at the way his plans to eviscerate the judiciary have come to naught, is refusing to allow the appointment of new Supreme Court judges.
Law, Power, and Justice 
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