Israelis want to stop their country becoming Poland. They may be too late

One of the more popular slogans found at Israeli protests against the government’s highly controversial judicial reforms is: “We don’t want to become Poland.” If only those demonstrators knew how similar the two countries already are.

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski surprised both Israelis and Poles on 27 March when he told a Polish radio station that his government had been advising Israel on how to handle protests against sweeping judicial overhauls.

“The Israelis asked us about it. I’m telling the honest truth, Israel was interested in what happened in Poland, we are interested to know what’s happening in Israel,” he said.

Polish media, as well as Poles in general, were taken aback by this unexpected confession. The liberal newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza conducted a follow-up interview with the much-criticised Jablonski, suggesting to the deputy minister that the “xenophobic Israeli government asked Poland for advice on how to conduct a coup on courts”. He offered them a softer version.

“Did you advise PM Netanyahu how to attack judges, how to prepare a propaganda campaign?” asked the Polish newspaper. “Nothing like that,” replied Jablonski, insisting he just “shared information”. “I’m surprised it turned into such an affair,” he said.

Judging by the reaction in media and online, Jablonski’s intervention surprised Poles more than it did Israelis. To Polish people, their government openly revealed that the country now had a “nationalistic distorted judiciary system”, as one put it on Twitter.

Israelis, on the other hand, just got official confirmation of what they have known for a while: Israel is set to become very much like Poland, with all the implications to follow. 

From autocracy to democracy and back again

In just a matter of years, the democracy Poland won after the collapse of the Soviet Union has moved closer and closer to autocracy, now ranking 49th in the Freedom Index, behind Albania and Mongolia.

The EU country’s drop in those ratings was driven in particular by lower scores for constraints on government powers and fundamental rights.

The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party argues that it has actually improved Polish democracy by rebalancing a media landscape previously dominated by liberal-leaning outlets and turning key institutions such as the Constitutional Tribunal into instrumental organs.

The Nazi death camps in occupied Poland and Israel's battle for narrative control

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This is exactly the argument now offered by the Israeli government to support its judicial overhaul. Tricks like lowering the retirement age for judges to get rid of about one-third of those less obedient, and replacing them with new judges appointed by the government, are painfully similar to the method and intention of the Israeli reforms.

All lead to the destruction of the separation of powers and the eventual political control of the judicial system.

But ties between the countries’ right-wingers haven’t always been immaculate. Over the eight years between the constitutional crisis in Poland and the judicial overhaul in Israel, two major diplomatic crises undermined the “special relations” between the two.

The first one had to do with the different narratives regarding the Holocaust and was settled by a mutual declaration signed by the prime ministers. Both claimed victory.

The second had to do with the traditional visits of Israeli youth to Poland and Nazi death camps on its soil. Though the row was primarily focused on who oversees the security of these groups, it touched on the more sensitive issue of the dominance of Israel vs the image that Poland presented to Israelis on these tours.

After a long struggle between the two countries claiming exclusivity over victimhood, a satisfactory agreement allowed the renewal of those visits.

Both long-lasting crises, including years with no exchange of ambassadors, did not put on hold the ongoing process of growing likeness between the two countries, which are startlingly different yet both obsessed with their image and status among nations.

Catholic and Jewish values

The growing similarity between Israel and Poland did not start with Israel’s judicial overhaul. In fact, the gradual process started over seven years ago when the nationalist-conservative PiS came to power. Replacing the previous, more secular and liberal government, the PiS emphasises its commitment to “Catholic values” and nurtures close ties with the most radical nationalist wing of the Polish church.

Again, very similar to the new Israeli government, which is committed to “Jewish values” and Jewish supremacy. In both countries, this commitment trumps commitment to democracy.

In both, conservative legislation disrespectful to minorities and women followed the linkage between state and religion. For example: Polish women are now subjected to strict anti-abortion laws; in Israel, the reforms could lead to women being excluded from certain public spaces.

'Don’t give up and don’t give in. Your government is trying to do what the PiS government did to Poland'

- Jacek Olejnik, former Polish embassy spokesperson

In both Poland and Israel, arts are subject to state scrutiny to preserve the image each country wants to project, even at the cost of rewriting history. In both, we can see ongoing attempts to control media through pressure on the more critical outlets and journalists.

Poland, which joined the EU in 2004, took pride in then becoming a flagship among the new members. Israel still takes pride of its dubious self-definition as “the only democracy in the Middle East”.

When confronted with criticism, both have claimed bias and felt offended by being misunderstood. Both are undergoing a process of the changing of the guard: new, resentful elites are replacing the old elite refusing to let go.  

In Israel, where the judicial reforms are likened to a coup, the images and rationale mirroring Poland keep haunting both Israelis and Poles, who now follow Israel closely (and with some envy).

“Israeli society fights the corrupt far-right ultraconservatives trying to destroy the judiciary and the very basis of democracy for their own benefit. We failed to do so in Poland a few years ago,” Jacek Olejnik, once a spokesperson for the Polish embassy in Israel, wrote on Facebook.

Agnieszka Magdziak-Miszewska served as Poland’s ambassador to Israel between 2006 and 2012. She offered some advice to Israelis based on her Polish experience. “Don’t give up and don’t give in. Your government is trying to do what the PiS government did to Poland,” she told Middle East Eye.

She noted the effects of Poland’s justice minister becoming attorney general: sacking anyone deemed disloyal.

“PiS controls all state institutions and, based on the new act, they can just replace competent civil servants with those loyal to them. That is how I lost my job at the defence ministry.”

Magdziak-Miszewska said independence of the judiciary was an abstract notion for most Poles, but the 500 zloty ($117) families are paid a month for each child is a tangible benefit that the PiS has bought votes with.

Magdziak-Miszewska has a message for Israeli protesters: “I hope you win. After all, your democracy is 75 years old; ours was less than 30. Talk to those still indifferent and show them how this judicial overhaul will affect the fate of simple people once the judges become totally dependent on the politicians.

"Tell them how helpless they will be with no one to turn to for aid. We failed to do that, assuming everybody understands. Our biggest mistake was contempt for opponents. Don’t go there.”

A dangerous pause

It might be too late for some of her warnings. Several Israeli ministers have already announced that they plan to ignore any legal judgement they don’t like. The Polish precedent reached Israel faster than expected.   

The most outspoken among those struck by the similarity is Lech Walesa, the revolutionary electrician from the Gdansk shipyards who became the Nobel Prize-winning president of Poland. “Protect democracy in your country,” he recently told Israelis.

“We in Poland made a big mistake. From day one of ideas similar to those now raised in Israel, we should have fought back. We did not fight hard enough.” He encouraged “street revolution” with use of force.

Walesa’s warning, and even more so the deputy foreign minister’s interview admitting Poland’s involvement in the judicial overhaul in Israel, come at a crucial moment. After three months of mass protests gaining momentum, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a delay to his reforms. That is not necessarily good news. Based on the Polish precedent, it actually spells bad news.

Israeli protests over judicial overhaul continue despite Netanyahu's pause

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In 2017, following a long period of self-imposed silence on Poland’s judicial reforms, Polish President Andrzej Duda (a PiS stalwart) voiced several reservations. “I feel they do not provide the necessary sense of security and justice,” he said.

Later that year, Duda in fact vetoed the reforms and thus put an end to the public protest and anger. The sense of victory was short lived. As early as that winter, when the people of Poland were on Christmas holiday or just seeking refuge from the cold, two of the main reforms were approved. No protest in the streets.

As early as 2018, Duda signed into law a measure effectively letting the government choose the next Supreme Court chief. Just a few thousand people staged protests across Poland. In 2019, the government reorganised and completed its judicial revolution. It was too late.

The same danger lurks in the future of the Israeli reforms, the suspension of which is suspected by many to be a way to kill the protests.

At least two immediate acts point in that direction: just a day after Netanyahu delayed the plan to May, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the reforms’ mastermind, posted on his supporters’ WhatsApp group: “Thanks for the support. I’ll make all possible effort to pass the legislation in the next session of the parliament. We will organise demonstrations all over the country to show what most of the people want. Let’s hope those who want to cause us harm will stop doing that.” 

It certainly does not sound like an end or even a compromise, which is now being negotiated by President Isaac Herzog. It sounds very much like the Polish model of “let’s take a break to come back with renewed energy and do it”.

Even more suspicious is the very fact that despite the delay, Levin himself just weeks ago promised he would refuse to slow down by “not even one minute”. He probably knows something Israelis only suspect.

They should look at Poland. There’s no coincidence that far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich named his judicial reform plans “law and justice” - the very same name as Poland’s ruling party.