To understand the events in Israel, one needs to ask only one question: What exactly limits the power of the government? Robust democracies rely on a whole system of checks and balances. But Israel has no constitution, no upper house of parliament, no federal structure, no other mechanism to control the government, with one exception: the Supreme Court, writes Yuval Noah Harari in the Financial Times.

Some members of Netanyahu’s coalition have already announced their intention to pass laws and policies that discriminate against Arabs, women, LGBTQ people, and non-religious people. Once the Supreme Court gets out of the way, nothing will stop them.

In such a situation, the government will also be able to falsify future elections, for example, by banning Arab parties from participating in them – such a measure has already been proposed by some members of the coalition. Israel will still hold elections, but they will be an authoritarian ritual instead of free democratic competition.

Some members of the government openly boast of their intentions. They explain that since they won the last election in Israel, they can now do whatever they want. Like other authoritarian powers, the Israeli government does not understand what democracy means.

He believes that this means the dictatorship of the majority and that those who win democratic elections are therefore given unlimited power. I have spoken with many Netanyahu supporters in recent months, and they sincerely believe that any restrictions on an elected government are undemocratic. “What do you mean we can’t take away people’s basic freedoms?” they say. “But we won the election! It means we can do whatever we want!” In fact, democracy means freedom and equality for all.

Democracy is a system that guarantees all people certain freedoms that even the majority cannot deprive them of.

The establishment of a dictatorship in Israel would have serious consequences not only for Israeli citizens. The ruling coalition is led by some messianic religious fanatics who believe in the ideology of Jewish supremacy. It calls for the annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories to Israel without granting Palestinians citizenship, and also provides for the final destruction of the Al-Aqsa mosque complex – one of the holiest sites in Islam – and the construction of a new Jewish temple in its place.

Jewish supremacy is not an isolated idea on the periphery. In the coalition, it is represented by the Party of Jewish Power and the Party of Religious Zionism. Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich (who is part of the latter) recently called for an entire Palestinian city to be wiped off the face of the earth in retaliation for the killing of two Jewish settlers.

People like Smotrych now command one of the most formidable military machines in the world, armed with nuclear weapons and advanced cyber weapons. It’s been a decade since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu campaigned against Iran’s nuclear weapons, warning the world of the dangers posed by a nuclear fundamentalist regime.

Now Netanyahu is steadily building such a regime in Israel. A fact that could set the entire Middle East on fire, with consequences that would reverberate far beyond the region. It would be incredibly stupid of Israel to do this, but as we learned from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we should never underestimate human stupidity. It is one of the most powerful forces in history.

The good news is that a strong resistance movement has emerged in recent months seeking to save Israeli democracy. Rejecting the ideology of Jewish supremacy and upholding the ancient traditions of Jewish tolerance, hundreds of thousands of Israelis are demonstrating, protesting and resisting in every non-violent way known to us.

Since Friday, more than 10,000 army reservists – including hundreds of air force pilots, cyber warfare experts and elite unit commanders – have publicly said they will not serve the dictatorship and will therefore suspend their jobs if the judicial restructuring continues. Israel’s air force, which relies heavily on reservists, may remain partially grounded until Tuesday.

To appreciate the grandeur of this gesture, I must remember that for many Israelis military service is a sacred duty. In a country that rose from the ashes of the Holocaust and faced existential threats for decades, the military has always been an intangible element of political disputes. But now everything has changed.

Former heads of the army, air force and security services have publicly called for soldiers to end their service. Veterans of Israel’s many wars say this is the most important battle of their lives. The Netanyahu government is trying to portray these events as a coup d’état, but in reality it is the complete opposite. Israeli soldiers do not take up arms to oppose the government – they lay down their arms. They explain that they signed their contracts with the Israeli democracy, and as soon as the democracy ends, so do their contracts.

The same sense of breach of social contract has also prompted universities, unions, technology companies and other private firms to threaten new strikes if the government continues its undemocratic power grab. Israelis understand the damage our country can suffer.

While the so-called Start-Up Nation is shutting down, investors from around the world are withdrawing their money. Internal damage is even greater. Fear and hatred now dominate the relationship between the various sections of society, while the social contract has been completely torn apart. There are members of the government who call the protesters and army reservists “traitors” and call for the use of force to suppress the opposition. Israelis fear a civil war could be days away.

But these hundreds of thousands of us protesting in the streets feel we have no choice. It is our duty to ourselves, to Jewish tradition, and to humanity to prevent the growth of the dictatorship of Jewish supremacy. We are in the streets because we have nowhere else to go if we want to save Israeli democracy.

Financial Times article by Yuval Noah Harari (Israeli historian, philosopher and writer) sponsored by Rador