Does Netanyahu really believe in democracy? Global freedom experts aren't sure - Opinion - Haaretz.com 2020-04-06 1327 Monday, April 06, 2020. Search Nisan 12, 5780 Time in Israel: 2:26 PM Israel News All sections Coronavirus Masks Day after ultra-Orthodox Netanyahu 'deep state' Iran Moscow Qatar How Judaism handled To stay younger for longer, Neo-Nazis, rabbis and rape: Basque ancient art changes epidemics down the ages make this change to your diet Art project got out of hand understanding of prehistoric societies Trending Now Home > Israel News Trending Now Opinion // Does Netanyahu Really Believe in Democracy? Global Freedom Amid Nationwide Coronavirus, Saudis Experts Aren't Sure Shortage, Israelis Force Moscow to Scramble for Eggs Freeze Plans for Tunisia speeds past Israel’s ailing democracy, even before COVID-19. Netanyahu has Middle East ‘anti-democratic tendencies.’ Hungary and Poland protect civil liberties better: How the Domination big three democracy indexes assess Israel Anders Persson | Send me email alerts Mar 29, 2020 4:05 PM 1058 Tweet 2 Zen ‘There Will Be a LISTEN: Haredi Revolt’: Life Under Leaders Learn Harsh Lockdown in Israel’s Corona Lesson as Haredi Coronavirus Israel Sends in the Hot Spot Troops Protesters, waving black flags, demonstrate against 'weakening Israel's democracy' under cover of the coronavirus crisis near the Knesset in Jerusalem, March 23 2020 Credit: Ohad Zwigenberg With the release of V-Dem’s democracy report last Friday, all the https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-does-netanyahu-really-believe-in-democracy-global-freedom-indexes-aren-t-sure-1.8712762 Sida 1 av 7 Does Netanyahu really believe in democracy? Global freedom experts aren't sure - Opinion - Haaretz.com 2020-04-06 1327 three big democracy rating indexes have published their yearly reports for 2020 (their data covers 2019). It is bleak reading – and that does not count the likely even more negative fallout for the world’s democracies that may emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic recession that will surely follow. The three reports unanimously paint a picture of intensifying autocratization around the world - from Brazil to India to the U.S. to Europe - with Hungary now being the first non-democratic Member State of the EU. According to V-Dem’s latest report, the majority or the world’s states are no longer democracies and only 46 percent of the world’s population are now living in electoral and liberal democracies. Freedom House’s flagship publication, the "Freedom in the World Report for 2020," found that 2019 was the 14th consecutive year of decline in global freedom. — Advertisement — Related tags: Coronavirus Israeli politics , Benjamin Netanyahu Trending Now All regime types were affected by this decline and more than half of the countries that were rated Free or Not Free in 2009 have suffered a net decline in the past decade, according to Freedom House. The Economist Democracy Index reported the worst average global score since the index was first produced in 2006. Silence of ultra-Orthodox Politicians in Israel Betrayed, Imperiled Their Own So how did Israel fare in this dark hour for liberal democracy? Like Community last year, Israel ‘s scores were a mixed bag; from again receiving its Anshel Pfeffer | Yesterday 15 worst rating ever from Freedom House, to receiving the same, relatively bad rating from V-Dem as it received last year, to again receiving its best rating ever from The Economist Democracy Index. The discrepancies can be explained by looking at the various rating indexes measurements and methodologies, which all rely on expert coding. Freedom House, the most well-known of the big three rating Double Whammy Could Cost Israel and indexes, gave Israel its worst rating ever since its flagship Iran Their Key Gulf State Contact publication the Freedom in the World began in 1973. Freedom Sebastian Castelier | 2 Hours Ago House lowered Israel’s aggregated score from 78/100 last year to 76/100 this year. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-does-netanyahu-really-believe-in-democracy-global-freedom-indexes-aren-t-sure-1.8712762 Sida 2 av 7 Does Netanyahu really believe in democracy? Global freedom experts aren't sure - Opinion - Haaretz.com 2020-04-06 1327 WATCH // Drone Footage Shows Israel's Most Crowded City Under Coronavirus Curfew Haaretz | 4 Hours Ago Freedom House rating for Israel, 2019 Credit: Twitter The decline in Israel’s rating took place in the category "Functioning of Government" because the two successive elections in 2019 (plus one this year) failed to produce a new government, leaving the existing government in place as a caretaker. Israel’s rating was also Hezbollah Official Who Tracked Israeli Collaborators Found Murdered, Group downgraded because caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Says Netanyahu, who was indicted on multiple corruption charges in Jack Khoury | Yesterday 2 2019, refused to step down and instead ran for reelection, while attacking the credibility of law enforcement institutions. Promoted content Related Articles Startup Nation: Take a look ● Knesset mutiny, produced and directed by Netanyahu, will at Israel's High-Teach Map live in infamy ● American Jews don't care that Israel's democracy is falling apart "It’s Time to Break the Myth ● Netanyahu dispatches his mercenaries to thrash Israel's About Medical Cannabis" top court ● Battling with Tunisia, better than Poland: How Israel's democracy measures up Breaking news and analyses in your inbox Email* [email protected] Sign up The Freedom in the World 2020 report noted that "Israel’s score Spared So Far, Israel's Arab Community Fears Ramadan Could has slipped six points, an unusually large decline for an established Spark Outbreak democracy." In fact, since 2011, Freedom House’s reports have Nir Hasson | 19 Hours Ago warned about successive anti-democratic laws that were advanced or enacted in the Israeli parliament. The latest report also came down hard on Netanyahu personally by accusing him of having "anti-democratic tendencies." These ant- idemocratic tendencies were laid bare for all to see in the past week when Netanyahu and his Likud party managed to postpone his trial and frantically tried to suspend the Israeli parliament from properly Coronavirus Tips: How to Wear a Mask functioning in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Correctly Ruth Schuster | Yesterday https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-does-netanyahu-really-believe-in-democracy-global-freedom-indexes-aren-t-sure-1.8712762 Sida 3 av 7 Does Netanyahu really believe in democracy? Global freedom experts aren't sure - Opinion - Haaretz.com 2020-04-06 1327 All of this, of course, raises serious questions: Are the Likud party and the (caretaker) prime minister really true democrats? V-Dem Institute @vdeminstitute @vdeminstitute #dataset & #DemocracyReport are out! It shows that #autocratization accelerates in the #world: #autocracies are now in the majority: covering 92 countries & 54% of the world Israel Slashes Coronavirus Tests as population. Supply From Germany, South Korea Dataset: bit.ly/2vA818D Runs Short Democracy Report: bit.ly/2weDL3K Ido Efrati | Yesterday 113 11:31 AM - Mar 20, 2020 103 people are talking about this The Day After Coronavirus in Israel Ido Efrati | 22 Hours Ago 1 V-Dem, the most academic of the three rating indexes, ranks Israel as holding the 49th place out of 179 countries on its Liberal Democracy Index. Israel’s score was marginally improved compared to last year, but what was most surprising about this year’s report was that Tunisia made a great leap forward to placing itself 41 out of 179 on the Liberal Democracy Index. This means that Tunisia now ranks as the most liberal and democratic country in the Middle East on V-Dem’s ranking, seven places in front of Israel; Kuwait Gantz to Ask President Rivlin for Extension in Forming Government (106/179) is the region’s distant third. Jonathan Lis | 20 Hours Ago A somewhat different picture emerges, as usual, from The Economist Democracy Index, which historically has ranked Israel higher than the other two indexes. Israel is well ahead of Tunisia on both The Economist’s and Freedom House’s indexes. This year Israel is ranked 28 out of 167, and it actually received its best aggregated score ever in this year’s index from The Economist. How Monsey Became a Center of Hasidic Life in America David B. Green | 29.12.2019 How Do You Export Cannabis in the Time of Coronavirus? Ruth Schuster | 19 Hours Ago How The Economist has rated Israel's democracy 2006-2019 Credit: Anders Persson https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-does-netanyahu-really-believe-in-democracy-global-freedom-indexes-aren-t-sure-1.8712762 Sida 4 av 7 Does Netanyahu really believe in democracy? Global freedom experts aren't sure - Opinion - Haaretz.com 2020-04-06 1327 The reason for this is that Israel improved, somewhat paradoxically Ad in this author’s opinion, in the category "Functioning of Government," despite the fact that Israel has not had a functioning government for the past year. Also, worth noting is that Israel scores low in the "Civil Liberties" category, which is a common theme in all the three indexes. In The Economist Democracy Index, Israel’s Civil tatuerings studion i Göteborg Liberties score is exactly the same as Tunisia, but far lower than all the EU Member States, even including Hungary and Poland. unikum tattoo Just like Netanyahu is widely considered, in the words of Freedom House’s report, to be "at the vanguard of nationalistic and Security & Aviation chauvinistic populism," he may turn out to be at the vanguard of manipulating the COVID-19 pandemic to prolong his stay in office as well. Leading democracy experts are currently warning that the COVID-19 pandemicis a golden opportunity for would be autocrats to consolidate their hold on power by imposing restrictions on their societies.