Democracy under assault

Ha'aretz and the clarion call

The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz published a chilling page length advert this week we should all bear in mind. 'Democracy doesn’t end with elections’, it blared. The Israeli publication reminds us that governments can too easily morph into engines of repression carrying out illegal activities to undermine a society’s norms. Ha’aretz is issuing a shocking but needed reminder.

It is hard to find a more divided society in the world than Israel. Officially the Jewish State, it has served for decades a refuge for those slaughtered in the millions by an elected fascist regime in Germany and Central Europe because of their religion. The official population of 8.9 million is 74% Jewish while more than a fifth of those living in the country’s boundaries are Arab, a population feeling distinctly jeopardised by