Protesters are fighting for democracy in Israel. Kansas, we should learn from them | Opinion
I am a proud Kansas voter as well as a recent protester in Israel. I am a historian of Roman antiquity who is extremely interested in contemporary global affairs.
I am primarily an educator. It is deeply ingrained in my heart to observe the educational aspects of public discourse. I continually question the meaning of citizenship. Does it mean that we perform our civic duties by voting once every two or four years? Can we trust our representatives to fulfill our desires, to tend to our needs and provide care for our community at large, whether for constituents who voted for them or not? Will democracy thrive between elections? If not, when should civilians get together to raise their concerns? How ought we stand up for what we believe in?
This is exactly why I stood, week after week, shoulder to shoulder with complete strangers, hoisting the Israeli flag in Tel Aviv. Had you asked me a year earlier about the Supreme Court of Israel or about the country’s “reasonableness clause,” I would have gazed at you as though you had just fallen from Mars. Because of the unceasing efforts of the protesters to educate the public, there hardly remains an Israeli who is unfamiliar with the full implications of the judicial reform that the government has been promoting since its new leaders were sworn in on Jan. 1. Even the many children who attended the weekly protests with their parents participated in shouting in unison, “Demokratia!” (democracy).
Eventually, the government overturned the reasonableness clause last month. Put crudely, this new action enables government leaders to pass any legislation without oversight or legal objections via the courts. The protests are ongoing. Protesters are fully aware that more is to come. Opposition in the Knesset (parliament) has been paralyzed.
The most impressive achievement of the Israeli protests, at least from my point of view, is its street literacy. Along with countless speeches that address the issues, many posters are displayed every week. You can walk along an “avenue” of posters, each bearing a poignant message, sometimes humorous, concerning a country torn asunder. This street literacy constitutes a new public discourse that should accompany all proposals to change an existing legal system.
An example of how valuable, indeed indispensable, the promotion of street literacy is can be seen right here in Kansas. Last year, nearly to the date, Kansans showed how important it is to educate voters. Numerous organizations joined together to explain the far-reaching consequences of voting yes for the referendum that would have allowed lawmakers in Topeka to further restrict abortion rights in the state. Without this tireless public educational effort, I doubt that the “vote no” campaign would have achieved the decisive majority that it did. The referendum also showed what democracy is about: giving all Kansans an opportunity to participate in the political process.
Teach kids to vote in important local elections
Who votes in local elections? How many take the trouble to look up the biographies and positions of those who contend for a position on the county commission or the school board? Are we teaching our kids that it is our duty to vote, particularly in local elections? The answer is most likely that we don’t. It is necessary to do our diligent homework regarding candidates and the offices that they aspire to fill. These are the representatives who have the power to shape our communities.
How could we enhance the component of civics in all school curricula, beginning with elementary school and all the way to college? I remember vividly how then-U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun gracefully responded to my invitation to address a class of mine. The insights he provided enabled us to draw instructive comparisons between ancient Roman and contemporary election campaigns.
But how likely are most of our representatives and our schools to advance such an exchange today? After all, they all got appointed under the present set of circumstances — a system of ignorance — so why should they change?
I am writing these words hard on the heels of the recent decision by the Kansas Supreme Court allowing the supermajority in the Legislature to redraw the state’s congressional voting districts. To quote Justice Eric S. Rosen, the only dissenting voice on the court, the move is bound to “propel this state’s national political power toward a monolithic single-party system.”
Is this what we want for our state? To be dominated by a single party whose representatives do not reflect the full spectrum of its residents? Voters had no say in this critical procedure. No referendum canvassed our opinions. Why? Because the present legislative framework allows gerrymandering without restraint. How should we voice our dissent?
What’s next? Solutions have been proposed by experts. I believe that street literacy, as exemplified by the Israeli protests, is the key. We owe it to ourselves to educate our children. We have the right to know and understand the repercussions of proposed legislation that affects us all. We have the right, as citizens and taxpayers, to participate in public discourse. We are the mainstay of democracy.
Hagith Sivan was educated in Israel at Tel Aviv University and the United States at Yale and Columbia universities, and has lived in Europe, Africa and Asia. She returned to the U.S. in 1993 for a teaching position at the University of Kansas. Since retirement, she has been sharing time between Kansas and Tel Aviv.
