Israeli Monopoly: A Dangerous Game

Like in the game of Monopoly, in democracy too, winners tend to eliminate their competitors • This article warns against the dangers of governmental centralization in Israel and offers a solution: a Jewish and democratic-federal constitution that grants equal rights to all groups in Israeli society.

One of my favorite board games is the famous Monopoly. It was invented in 1902 by Elizabeth Magie, who was an inventor and feminist activist for equal rights. During the Great Depression, the game changed hands and gained popularity, with estimates suggesting that approximately 275 million units had been sold worldwide by 2015.

The original purpose of the game was to illustrate that the free market destroys itself from within. The free market is essentially a competition between players, and therefore at the end of the game, someone will win the competition and not allow any other player to compete with them. The only way to prevent this outcome is to ensure that no player gains a monopoly and suppresses the freedom of other players.

Similarly, the political system is not different from the economic system. Free elections at the ballot box are not a sufficient guarantee for democratic freedom. In the end, one of the parties always wins the elections, and the winners' primary interest is to suppress competitors and preserve their victory. If the winners are not subject to restraining rules, they will act to restrict, delay, and block the opposition. This phenomenon is particularly prominent in countries like Turkey and Hungary, where elections are free but not equal. As of now, there are no independent and strong enough authorities to protect the freedom of expression and association of the opposition.

These days, it seems that the State of Israel has also returned to this dangerous path.

Image: Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

Political Democracy

Israel is a historical wonder. It was founded and still exists as a liberal democracy. As of now, we have three separate branches of government, free elections, and individual equal rights for all citizens. For this, we all owe gratitude to the founders of the state who faced impossible challenges. It is because of them that we exist here today.

But like any human system, Israeli democracy also has many flaws. Israeli society is a heterogeneous society full of religious and national disputes, living on a tiny territory, under heavy security pressure, with tens of percent of us not believing in equal rights as a binding value. Therefore, some strongly oppose equal rights, and some will allow various considerations to weaken it.

With the establishment of Israel, the founders of the state felt that in these conditions, it was not possible to reach constitutional agreements. Therefore, to quickly solve these problems, they chose to establish Israel as a centralized democracy based on the political system. Instead of establishing a constitution, judicial review, and explicit legal recognition of the value of equality, the founders of the state chose a different path.

They created a centralized governmental system based on the power of the Mapai party [1]. In this framework, the government concentrates many powers in its hands, such as in the areas of land, education, and security - and the political leadership is in charge of all these. This means that the structure of the Israeli government gives the ruling coalition the authority to change the rules of the game, limit the opposition, and assist coalition supporters. This allows the government to distinguish between different population groups according to its political needs. Thus began the game of Monopoly.

This is why only religious-Zionists have state-sponsored educational autonomy. Only Jewish society has the JNF as a legal representative representing the Jewish people and its land holdings in the Israel Land Council. Only the Orthodox Jewish stream has a recognized Chief Rabbinate. The Haredi and Arab communities are prevented or largely refrain from enlisting in the IDF or national-civilian service – and countless other examples.

There are many legal "tricks" to distinguish between population groups according to the political interest of the government. Constitutional laws can be changed frequently, gatekeepers in local authorities can be weakened, the actions of Knesset members can be restricted, lands can be transferred to preferred groups, small print can be added to state laws that will grant extensive powers to ministers, and so on. In the early days of the state, the Mapai party promoted these norms, but since 1977, Likud has been the main ruling party in the country, and alongside the good deeds it has done, it has also expanded this behavior. Moreover, from then until today, the disputes in Israeli society have expanded, and with them the need to please small pressure groups at all costs. Instead of the current coalition leading a broad and agreed-upon move to correct these flaws, it is taking opposite steps and acting to exacerbate the improper conduct. Recently, the Knesset decided to allow the Minister of Justice to control the appointment of the commissioner who will investigate judges, and a proposal to increase political control in the committee for appointing judges is on the Knesset's table. These are extremely serious proposals that will exacerbate the crisis we are in - and they should not be accepted.

In 1992, the Knesset tried to correct these flaws by enacting Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. The judiciary interpreted the law as permission to exercise broad constitutional review by it, and then the Knesset endorsed the decision of the judiciary when an overwhelming majority of 75 legislators voted in favor of adding additional clauses to the aforementioned Basic Law. It was a brave and worthy move by both the Knesset and the judiciary. A proper democracy cannot be established without judicial review that authorizes judges to invalidate laws that contradict the constitution.

But unfortunately, this attempt was not enough. While Israel's democratic identity was strengthened and many flaws were corrected, at the same time, broad and important parts of Israeli society rejected the values of the constitutional revolution of the 90s because they feared that their religious way of life would be harmed. Moreover, in the test of results, these changes did not eliminate discrimination against the Arab public in Israel and did not lead to a constitution that explicitly recognizes the value of equality. When the foundations of the building are not stable, one cannot be satisfied with renovating only the third floor. As long as the system of checks and balances between the different branches remains unclear and deficient, it is not possible to rely solely on strengthening the power of the judiciary. For this reason, over the years, the Israeli legal system has also accumulated excess power and, like any system, it needs reform [2].

Now, after seventy-six years of the Israeli Monopoly game, we are approaching the finish line. The government and the Supreme Court have deteriorated into a power game with unclear rules, and the government's functioning is deteriorating.

Governmental and Social Disintegration

The continued deepening of political control in our governance mechanisms is leading us to the brink of collapse. For example, these days, an initiative is being promoted in the coalition that is designed to make it easier for the government to appoint directors to government companies while reducing the threshold requirements for the position. It can be assumed that this reform will expand the phenomenon of appointing board members who are close to the political leadership and are not suitable for their role. These are companies that control billions of shekels from the Israeli public's money, and therefore even a small percentage of damage to them will cause extensive waste of public funds. Just like in the Monopoly game, when a player starts to accumulate power, houses, and hotels, they expand their control over the board.

But the erosion does not stop there. Recently, the "Rabbis Law" passed in the Knesset, allowing the Minister of Religious Services to fund additional positions with tens of millions of shekels for the religious services system, and the state budget for 2025 is facing new difficulties not seen in Israel for decades. In light of this, we must ask ourselves, will the current coalition's economic-social policy extricate us from the huge deficit we have accumulated due to the war? Journalist Uriel Dekstel found that since 1992, the average growth in Netanyahu's governments stands at 2.8%, while the average growth in other governments during the same period was 6.1%. This is an ominous figure. Even if this figure can be explained in different ways, nevertheless, the claim that these coalitions are more exposed to small pressure groups demanding large resources cannot be dismissed. These days, the Israeli government approved the transfer of 5 billion NIS to coalition funds. This is not the policy we need in wartime.

Furthermore, politicization and the excessive distribution of resources to groups that support the coalition deepens social disintegration. On the one hand, the Abraham Initiatives organization found that there has been a sharp rise in violence victims in Arab society since the government began its tenure. On the other hand, in Haredi society, there has been a decrease in the number of men enlisting in military service and participating in the workforce.

Israeli Declaration of Independence, 1948. Source: National Photo Collection.

Jewish and Democratic Federal Constitution

Therefore, we must unite and correct our governance structure. First, we must declare that we are not willing to accept the moves that the current coalition is promoting. These moves exacerbate the problem and should be fought against in all legal ways. We must call for elections and demand that future governments immediately cancel all the laws of the judicial reform. For the same reason, compromise attempts based on the "middle way" between the coalition and the opposition should also be rejected. Such compromises do try to reunite society but in practice, they cement the problematic status quo and do not stop the deterioration.

Second, the centralization of the existing governance structure is what prevents us from cohesion and partnership between the various groups in Israeli society. For illustration, the existing centralization forces the government to agree on conversion laws, the establishment of a new airport in the south of the country, and affirmative action policies for various populations. This is an impossible multiplicity of disputes, and therefore in many democracies around the world, such questions are dispersed among different governmental authorities or private institutions. The attempt to solve these disputes with centralized power has failed time and time again. Thus, we have left disproportionate powers in the hands of the political leadership - and in the end, these problems have not been solved but have worsened.

Therefore, we need to change the rules of the game and promote a decentralized governance structure based on a federal constitution for Israel. Federalism is a governmental model that decentralizes powers between the central government and geographical or community subunits. This model is practiced, for example, in the US, Switzerland, and Germany.

In the model proposed by our movement, group rights will be guaranteed in the constitution. That is, the right of different communities to manage their cultural, values, and religious affairs autonomously will be guaranteed. Thus, our different ways of life will be protected, and the central political system will not be forced to decide on disputes on religious matters. Only under these conditions will the majority of Israeli society be able to unite and promote a broad, inclusive, and shared Israeli identity.

Third, we cannot escape the current crisis in a short period. We must adapt the nature of our struggle to long-term activity. Demonstrations and public campaigns on social networks are very effective in the short term, but they are not enough. The groups interested in dismantling Israeli democracy can wait and flood the Knesset with legislation or act at a time when it will be harder to deal with them, such as in the current state of war. Therefore, alongside the demonstrations and various campaigns, we must also be determined and have strategic patience. We need to promote educational frameworks, publish research, and promote public struggles that will instill in us the hope for change.

In summary, the federal constitution we propose is not just a legal document, but a basis for a new social covenant. We need to re-establish the value coalition that founded Israel until 1977 to promote a new Israeli partnership. Only this partnership, which grants full equal rights and recognizes the need for decentralization of powers, will allow us to stop the dangerous Monopoly game and build a unified and democratic society. The minority that is expected to oppose this partnership will receive full equal rights but will have to accept the majority's rule. Only in this way will we reach safe shores.

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[1]  Later on, the Mapai party would transform into the Labor Party.

[2] The late Prof. Amnon Rubinstein, Israel Prize laureate for Law, one of the founders of the Meretz party and one of the initiators of Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, described this well in his book: Amnon Rubinstein and Adam Wolfson, In the Absence of Government (Kinneret Zmora Dvir, 2012), pp. 128-133.