Trust in Institutions Has Diminished in Israel

Mass protests against a controversial judicial reform have intensified in Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday. Gallant spoke out in opposition of Netanyahu’s reform that would give control over the appointment of judges to the government and also enable the parliament to override the Supreme Court. Gallant cited the refusal of some reservist forces to train in the light of the plans as a reason to put a pause on the reform to not endanger the security of the country.

After the ouster, several more cabinet ministers as well as the president of Israel (a largely ceremonial role) also spoke out against the reforms that experts say would undermine the independence of the judiciary. After protesters had lit several fires on Tel Aviv highways Sunday night and were dispersed around 2 a.m. the following day by water cannons, universities in the country are on strike this Monday, while Israel’s largest labor union has announced a press conference.

As seen in an annual survey by The Israel Democracy Institute, Israelis’ trust in the state’s institutions has been deteriorating for some years, with only 35 percent of people in the country saying they trusted institutions quite a lot or very much in 2022, down from a high of 61 percent in 2012. The Supreme Court still enjoyed a comparably high trust score: 42 percent of Jewish Israelis said they trusted it last year – rank 3 behind the Israeli Defense Forces and the President of Israel. This score was substantially higher than trust in the government (24 percent) and the Knesset, the Israeli parliament (19 percent). For Arab Israelis in the survey representative of the country’s population, the Supreme Court was the most trusted institution out of all, while trust was lower across the board for this group.