Why is Israel in turmoil?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 4 May 2023
⏱️ 24 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Last November Israel elected its most far right government in its 75 year history. Months of protests followed over its plans for reform of the judicial system.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition government is proposing an agenda that goes beyond domestic reforms – and not everyone is happy.
As well as domestic protests, some of Israel’s allies are nervous as, with the government’s attention taken up by internal challenges, new alliances are forming in the middle east.
This episode of The Inquiry explores the reasons behind the tension and protests in the country and asks, why is Israel in turmoil?
Guests: Tamar Hermann, senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute and Professor of Political Science at the Open University
Anshel Pfeffer, journalist and biographer of Benjamin Netanyahu
Professor Yossi Mekelberg, associate fellow at Chatham House
Hugh Lovatt, Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations
Presented by Gary O’Donoghue. Producer: Louise Clarke Researcher: Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty Editor: Tara McDermott. The programme was mixed by Richard Hannaford
(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 20 Apr 2023. Credit: Menahem Kahana/ Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | 15 years ago, 23-year-old Norwegian student Martina Vick Magnussen was killed in an apartment near Mayfair. |
| 0:07.0 | 23-year-old Martina Vick Magnussen was found partially buried in the basement. |
| 0:12.0 | Before being questioned, the only suspect in the case had fled the UK to Yemen. |
| 0:17.0 | I made a promise to Martina's family to find out what happened. |
| 0:21.0 | Murder in Mayfair, part of the documentary, find it wherever you get your BBC podcast. |
| 0:28.0 | You're listening to the inquiry on the BBC World Service with me Gary O'Donohue, |
| 0:33.0 | one question for expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:40.0 | On November the first last year, Israel held its fifth general election in less than four years. |
| 0:47.0 | This time, the vote produced a coalition government, more right wing and more religious |
| 0:52.0 | than any other in Israel's 75-year history. |
| 0:56.0 | At its head, Benjamin Netanyahu, the great political survivor, facing several corruption charges |
| 1:03.0 | but about to embark on his sixth term as the country's prime minister. |
| 1:08.0 | I hear the opposition's constant laments about the end of the state, the end of democracy. |
| 1:15.0 | Members of their opposition, losing the elections is not the end of democracy. |
| 1:20.0 | This is the essence of democracy. |
| 1:24.0 | But then this happened. |
| 1:32.0 | Tens of thousands of people came onto the streets, all furious at radical changes |
| 1:37.0 | being proposed to the power of Israel's supreme court. |
| 1:41.0 | They were also angered by plans for a bigger role for religion in public life, |
| 1:46.0 | leading many to fear an erosion of civil rights. |
| 1:51.0 | And those demonstrations have continued, grown in size and become more organized and better funded. |
| 1:58.0 | So this week on the inquiry, we're asking why is Israel in turmoil? |
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