The coronavirus is inflicting physical, mental and economic damage on people throughout the world on a scale unseen since the mid-20th century. In a bid to stem the pandemic, save lives and prevent the collapse of health systems, truly democratic governments are adopting drastic measures reminiscent of wartime states of emergency. In Israel, a caretaker government, whose members no longer have the confidence of a majority of voters, is damaging the most vital organs of democracy and human freedoms under the auspices of public anxiety. And this, even though the pandemic has so far not resulted in a single Israeli fatality. In fact, Nobel Prize Laureate professor Michael Levitt said March 18 that he would be “very surprised” if more than 10 people die in Israel due to the coronavirus infection, adding that he had shared his view with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The coronavirus has spawned an unprecedented pandemic that requires unprecedented measures, Blue and White senior Yair Lapid wrote on his Facebook page March 17, adding, “However, it also raises the question of who we are, what kind of state we have here.” The centrist politician continued, “Israel’s unelected government told us today that it is the sole authority in the country. It told us we are not allowed to leave our house. If you want to challenge the decision or even ask someone to reexamine it, you have nowhere to turn. As of this moment, Benjamin Netanyahu and [Knesset Speaker] Yuli Edelstein have shut down Israeli democracy.”

Indeed, the pillars of Israeli democracy have been resting on shaky ground for the past 15 months. The caretaker government installed after the Knesset was dissolved in December 2018 has been operating without a parliamentary majority, without an annual budget and without the authority to appoint ministers and senior officials, chief among them the commissioner of police and state attorney. Instead, it had appointed a state comptroller whose chief qualification is loyalty to Netanyahu. In the pre-dawn hours of March 17, the ministerial lackeys were asked in a telephone survey to approve emergency regulations authorizing phone tracking of coronavirus patients. None of the ministers bothered asking why such authority cannot be placed in the hands of the country’s top law enforcement body, the police. Why should special authority be given to an organization charged with countering espionage and terrorism?

Netanyahu’s favorite Minister Amir Ohana, who bears the title of justice minister in vain, did not protest the interim prime minister’s failure to obtain court approval for the unusual measure. After all, just days earlier, that same Ohana, acting without due authority, shut down the nation’s courts. Not only were the emergency regulations not brought before a judge, the Knesset subcommittee tasked with oversight of the clandestine services refused to sanction such far-reaching violation of the privacy of hundreds of thousands of people without parliamentary oversight. The subcommittee demanded to know, among other things, the extent of the invasion into the lives of people who were in the company of coronavirus carriers.