Israel’s democratic civil society in times of war and democratic backsliding
Observatorium 84 I October 2025 | by Maja Sojref
Since the massacres of 7 October 2023 in Southern Israel, the country’s democratic civil society has been facing multiple challenges. One of these is the systematic obstruction of the work of human and civil rights organizations.[1]
“Over 18,000 children dead in Gaza. This is not a victory. It is a tragedy. End the war in Gaza. Today.” This is the message of a 34 seconds-long video, which ran as an unskippable ad on the N12 app, Israel’s most watched news platform, in August 2025.[2] The clip was produced by Have you seen the horizon lately, a New Israel Fund (NIF) grantee, which aims to foster Jewish-Arab partnership in Israel and advocates for a democratic and peaceful future. After the massacres of 7 October 2023 by Hamas and other armed groups in Southern Israel, the organization built and operated a Jewish-Arab relief center in Rahat, in cooperation with Itach-Ma’aki, another non-profit. Almost two years later, with more than 66,000 Palestinians killed and 48 Israeli hostages still held in the Gaza strip, Have you seen the horizon boldly confronted Israeli audiences with a reality that has largely been absent from the country’s mainstream media: the scale of devastation and human suffering in Gaza, as well as the faces of some of the Palestinian children killed in Israeli strikes on the coastal strip.
Amid the ongoing war in Gaza, rocket attacks on Israel from Yemen, Lebanon, and Iran, escalating settler violence and advancing annexation in the West Bank, as well as restrictions on freedom of assembly and expression within Israel, the country’s democratic civil society has been facing multiple challenges. This is especially true for organizations that defend the rights of Palestinians, promote Jewish-Palestinian partnership, and advocate for a diplomatic resolution of the conflict. First, they have been fighting and building broad alliances against democratic backsliding. Second, they have held the government, courts, media, and much of the Israeli public accountable for indifference to human rights violations and the suffering of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel’s remarkably rapid and sweeping democratic backsliding
Since the latest Netanyahu coalition took office in late 2022, Israel’s democratic civil society has been fighting rapid and sweeping democratic backsliding. With few institutional safeguards—no constitution, no second legislative chamber, and no federal system—Israel’s democratic structures have been particularly vulnerable. A strong personality cult surrounding Prime Minister and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, combined with a high degree of affective polarization, has fueled public support for the judicial overhaul. As Gidron et al. show, voters of the current government not only disagree with but deeply dislike members of the political opposition, making them more willing to tolerate anti-democratic transgressions by their own leaders. To effectively resist democratic backsliding, civil society must thus not only defend democratic institutions, but also work to build broad, values-based alliances that can bridge deep political and social divides. [3]
In this climate and in the shadow of the war in Gaza, the right-wing Israeli government has continued promoting legislation which undermines the independence of the judiciary,[4] removes institutional gatekeepers, [5] excludes Palestinian citizens of Israel from political life,[6] and threatens democratic civil society in its existence. In contrast to the sweeping, so-called judicial reforms prior to Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, coalition lawmakers have now adopted a piecemeal approach. Through seemingly technical or administrative changes, they have gradually—but no less profoundly—undermined the separation of powers and the pluralism in Israel’s public sphere.
As part of this and like illiberal actors elsewhere, Israel’s right-wing populists have long tried to demonize the work of democratic civil society groups and to obstruct their work through burdensome regulations. More specifically, Likud lawmakers have repeatedly sought to block foreign governments and foundations from funding civil society organizations, particularly those documenting human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza, protesting the judicial overhaul or promoting Israeli-Palestinian cooperation.
Shortly before the 2025 summer recess, the Knesset’s Justice Committee debated the latest version of an NGO taxation bill, modeled on Russia’s 2012 Foreign Agents Law. According to the bill, civil society groups receiving foreign funding above a certain threshold would be required to sign a three-year pledge not to participate in demonstrations, advocacy campaigns, or any public criticism of the government. Refusal would trigger a 23% tax on their foreign donors—including EU governments and institutions such as the German Foreign Office and German political foundations. In cases of violation, the penalty could rise to 46%. If enacted, the law would effectively force human rights organizations to choose between political silence and financial ruin. The draft also mentioned that any NGO receiving foreign funding will be required to pay increased petition fees when appealing to the High Court of Justice. Such a provision would prevent smaller organizations from judicial review and thus undermine the principles of equal access to justice.[7]
Critics of the bill argue that it is tailored to silence the government’s critics, while providing exemptions to organizations aligned with its hardline ethnonationalist and expansionist agenda.[8] And although the NGO taxation bill targets particularly organizations which defend the rights of Palestinians, it would damage Israel’s vibrant civil society as a whole and pave the way for further undemocratic legislation. After all, who will defend democratic principles once civil rights organizations are no longer able to petition against government legislation that violates Israel’s Basic Laws, or investigative journalists are prevented from exposing corruption, malpractice, or misinformation?
Protests under pressure
Protests against the war in Gaza have been another focal point of government attacks on democratic civil society. While protests advocating for a hostage deal have so far mostly been tolerated, those that directly address the man-made humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza or express sympathy for the suffering of Palestinian civilians, have been heavily restricted by the police.[9] In the immediate aftermath of the terror attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, all anti-war demonstrations were banned. The then police chief, Kobi Shabtai, infamously addressed Palestinian citizens of Israel on an Arabic-language TikTok-channel, threatening to deport those who “identify with Gaza” to the enclave.[10] His remarks reflect a broader pattern in which Palestinians with Israeli citizenship have been framed not as equal citizens but as latent threats to national security.
In recent months, rather than banning demonstrations outright, Israeli police have obstructed protests against the war in Gaza by introducing bureaucratic and financial hurdles, restricting the size of gatherings or confining them to remote areas. In Haifa, for instance, where in May 2025 the “Partnership for Peace” coalition of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel had planned a demonstration under the banner “Enough of war. Yes to peace.”, police withheld the permit until shortly before the date of the protest. Through these tactics, civil rights groups such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) argue, the police hinder organizers’ ability to prepare—and often prevent legal appeals in time. In Haifa, far-right groups added to the pressure by lobbying the mayor to ban the protest.[11] When police in Haifa finally issued a permit for the protest, it came with extraordinary and unreasonable conditions: demands for municipal approval, fenced-off protest zones, a ban on amplified sound, live police surveillance, and more. ACRI successfully petitioned the district court on behalf of the coalition, to remove these barriers and the protest could proceed as originally planned.[12]
Despite some legal victories, the right to protest remains under attack, and new restrictions may soon also extend to urban areas in central Israel—the very epicenters of the mass rallies demanding a hostage deal. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has openly called for the resettlement of Gaza and temporarily quit Netanyahu’s coalition in opposition to a ceasefire, has proposed new protest guidelines instructing police to ban demonstrations that block major roads. In the name of “freedom of movement” and “freedom of property” Ben-Gvir is seeking to enforce a policy which would effectively render mass rallies in city centers, including in Tel Aviv and those near the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem, impossible.[13]
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and members of his coalition government have continuously tried to delegitimize mass demonstrations for a hostage deal, by suggesting that protesters were “aiding” Hamas, “pushing off the hostages’ release and guaranteeing the horrors of the massacre will return”,[14] or even a “branch” of Hamas.[15] In doing so, they have employed what Shai Agmon and Yonathan Levi have described as security-driven populism—a strategy where populist politicians exploit security-related rather than cultural or economic anxieties and frame opposition not as political dissent, but as a threat to national security.[16]
Civil society mobilization against the war
This October marked the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 7 October 2023 on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed by Hamas and other armed groups and around 251 taken hostage. In the ensuing war in Gaza, most of the coastal strip, including the medical infrastructure, have been destroyed, more than 66,000 Palestinians are reported to have been killed by Israeli attacks. According to a recent analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), more than half a million people in the Gaza district are affected by famine.[17] As of 13 October 2025, a ceasefire has taken effect, and all 20 living hostages have been released from Hamas captivity. The ceasefire has provided a desperately needed breath of air—for the families waiting for a return of their loved one and for Palestinians in Gaza in urgent need of aid. With many questions about Gaza’s future still unresolved, the hope remains that the current ceasefire can become permanent and pave the way for a lasting political resolution of the conflict.
In Israel, a society shaped by trauma and the emotional and economic toll of two years of war, opposition to the war in Gaza has been growing. In particular, following the Israeli cabinet’s announcement in August 2025, to extend operations to Gaza city and occupy all of the Gaza Strip, many Israeli worried that this would endanger the lives of the—later released—20 living hostages. For many months, a majority of Israelis have favored a deal with Hamas, which would bring a ceasefire in exchange for the release of all 48 remaining hostages over continued fighting.[18] On 4 August 2025, 19 former heads of Israel’s police, security agencies and army published a video arguing that the war had long ceased to serve Israel’s security interest and must end immediately.[19] A growing number of reservists have refused to report to duty for the offensive on Gaza City.[20] In the largest protests since the outbreak of the war, an estimated one million Israelis, joined a nationwide protest and general strike in support of a hostage deal on 17 August 2025.[21]
Since 7 October 2023, portraits of terror victims, Israeli hostages or slain soldiers, as well as the yellow ribbons symbolizing solidarity with the hostages’ plea, have been omnipresent in Israeli cities. By contrast, reports about the widespread hunger, images of children emaciated by hunger and families grieving for their loved ones, that have caused an outcry among much of the global public, have long been absent from Hebrew-language outlets. Instead, Israeli mainstream have echoed Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that there was no starvation in Gaza and images of widespread hunger were fake.[22] This might in part explain why, in a survey conducted by Israel Democracy Institute in July 2025, more than three quarters of Jewish-Israeli respondents said they were not so troubled or not at all troubled by the reports of famine and suffering among the Palestinian population in Gaza. By contrast, among Palestinian citizens of Israel, 86% said they were somewhat or very troubled.[23]
This makes the work of Have you seen the horizon, of Jewish-Palestinian grassroots organizations like Standing Together who put of posters with portraits of children killed in Gaza or individuals like Adi Argov, who collects and publishes reports about violence against Palestinians,[24] all the more important. This comes at great personal risk. Civil rights advocates have reported hundreds of cases, particularly of Palestinian citizens of Israel, who lost their jobs, experienced threats or severe hate speech campaigns or even prosecution and imprisonment for expressing sympathy with civilians in Gaza.[25]
Meanwhile, professional organizations and grassroots initiatives which rallied together against the Netanyahu government’s judicial coup, have by and large stayed silent on the man-made humanitarian catastrophe, happening just a two-hours-drive from Tel Aviv. This includes the Israeli bar association, an outspoken opponent of the government’s attempt to overturn a legal standard which allows the Supreme Court’s to invalidate government decisions and ministerial appointments deemed “extremely unreasonable”. In the words of Michael Sfard, Israel’s most prominent human rights attorney:
“What shame it is to belong to a legal association that fights to preserve the “reasonableness clause,” but says nothing about the duty to allow humanitarian aid for starving civilians or Red Cross visits for enemy prisoners.”[26]
This raises two pressing questions for Israel’s democratic civil society: firstly, how can it build the broad-based alliances needed to defend democratic institutions and pluralism, if parts of these alliances remain silent on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza? Secondly, how can Israel’s democratic civil society use this momentum to push for a deeper, more honest conversation about democratic renewal—one that goes beyond reversing harmful legislation, and begins to address long-standing structural injustices, including the occupation and the unequal treatment of Palestinian citizens of Israel?
Solidarity and mutual learning
Democratic civil society in Israel has documented and fought the expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements and the de facto annexation of the West Bank, has raised the prospect of the government’s accountability for the failures to prevent or respond to the October 7 massacres, and thus, ultimately, threatened the government’s political survival. That is why dismantling democratic civil society has been a key effort in the current government’s judicial coup. Democratic backsliding in Israel is not separate from questions of security, occupation and war but rather deeply intertwined with it.
Understanding these dynamics is essential. What is at stake is not only the integrity of Israel’s democratic institutions, but also the broader possibility of a political future grounded in equality, security, and shared existence—for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Israel’s courageous civil society needs all the support it can get to fight back. In a moment when the United States is led by a president who follows a similar illiberal playbook against domestic critics, European support becomes all the more vital. The situation demands more than rhetorical commitment. European governments—and civil societies—can and should do much more to stand with Israel’s democratic actors against existential threats.
This is not a one-way street. Democratic civil society in Israel offers valuable lessons for others confronting backsliding: from mobilizing people who had never protested before, to countering disinformation with cutting-edge digital tools, to building the infrastructure needed for the day after a populist government. In the face of transnational illiberal threats to democracies, cooperation and mutual learning among democratic civil societies is crucial and should be further developed.
Maja Sojref is the Executive Director of the New Israel Fund (NIF) Germany.
[1] This text was last edited on 13 October 2025, so it may no longer reflect the most recent political developments.
[2] Video available here: https://vimeo.com/1115930848/3188c43a65?fl=pl&fe=ti
[3] Gidron, N. et al. (2023) Why Masses Support Democratic Backsliding. OSF Preprints, 19 Sept. Available at: https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/zxukm_v1
[4] Fuchs, A. (2025) The dangerous politicization of judicial Appointments, Israel Democracy Institute, 27 July. Available at: https://en.idi.org.il/articles/58580
[5] Times of Israel (2024) High Court freezes dismissal of attorney general after government votes to fire her, 4 August. Available at: https://www.timesofisrael.com/high-court-freezes-dismissal-of-attorney-general-after-government-votes-to-fire-her/
[6] Times of Israel (2023) Knesset advances legislation that could make it easier to disqualify Arab lawmakers, 19 December. Available at: https://www.timesofisrael.com/knesset-advances-legislation-that-could-make-it-easier-to-disqualify-arab-lawmakers
[7] Ynet News (2025) Justice Committee debates NGO taxation bill modeled on Russia’s Foreign Agents Law, 15 July. Available at: https://www.ynetnews.com/article/s1oizdj8eg
[8] New Israel Fund (2025) This bill silences the Human Rights community, 20 February. https://www.nif.org/press-releases/this-bill-silences-the-human-rights-community-in-israel/
[9] Standing Together (2025) Hundreds marched through the streets of central Tel Aviv last night carrying sacks of flour and photos of Palestinian children in Gaza, 23 July. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1407355866983091&utm
[10] Reuters (2023) Israeli police crack down on Arab citizens expressing solidarity with Gaza, 20 October. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-police-crack-down-arab-citizens-expressing-solidarity-with-gaza-2023-10-20
[11] Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) (2024) Permit for an anti-war protest in Haifa: a saga, 15 July. Available at: https://www.english.acri.org.il/post/permit-for-an-antiwar-protest-in-haifa-a-saga
[12] New Israel Fund (NIF) (2025) Ensuring the right to protest against the war in Israel, 10 July. Available at: https://www.nif.org/stories/human-rights-democracy/ensuring-the-right-to-protest-against-the-war-in-israel
[13] Times of Israel (2025) Ben-Gvir says he will set stringent limits on right to protest amid mass hostage rallies, 28 August. Available at: https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-gvir-plans-new-policy-barring-protests-on-major-roads-or-at-synagogues/
[14] Shalev, T. (2025) Netanyahu faces mounting protests over Gaza war as Israelis demand hostage deal, CNN, 27 August. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/27/middleeast/netanyahu-israel-protests-gaza-analysis-intl
[15] Times of Israel (2024) Hardline Likud MK calls anti-government protesters a ‘branch of Hamas’, 18 June. Available at: https://www.timesofisrael.com/hardline-likud-mk-calls-anti-government-protesters-a-branch-of-hamas/
[16] Agmon, S. and Levi, Y. (2020) Beyond Culture and Economy: Israel’s Security-Driven Populism in Contemporary Politics 27.
[17] IPC Global Initiative (2025) GAZA STRIP: Famine confirmed in Gaza Governorate, projected to expand, 22 August. Available at: https://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/countries-in-focus-archive/issue-134/en/
[18] Times of Israel (2025) Breaking with PM, 74% of Israelis back war-ending deal to free all hostages, 11 July. Available at: https://www.timesofisrael.com/breaking-with-pm-74-of-israelis-back-war-ending-deal-to-free-all-hostages-poll/
[19] https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1477047403426125
[20] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/more-israeli-reservists-are-refusing-military-deployment-to-gaza
[21] Times of Israel (2025) Hundreds of thousands gather in Tel Aviv to mark end of nationwide day of hostage protests, 17 August. Available at: https://www.timesofisrael.com/hundreds-of-thousands-gather-in-tel-aviv-to-mark-end-of-nationwide-day-of-hostage-protests/
[22] Tondo, L. (2025) Israeli media ‘completely ignored’ Gaza starvation – is that finally changing? 17 August. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/17/israeli-media-completely-ignored-gaza-starvation-is-that-finally-changing
[23] https://en.idi.org.il/articles/60357
[24] New Israel Fund (2025) Adi Argov, who exposes harm to Palestinian children, wins top prize from New Israel Fund, 15 July. Available at: https://www.nif.org/press-releases/adi-argov-wins-truth-to-power-prize/
[25] Adalah (2023) Hundreds of Palestinian students suspended from Israeli universities for social media posts expressing sympathy for Gaza civilians, 9 November. Available at: https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10925
[26] Sfard, M. (2025) We Israelis Are Part of a Mafia Crime Family. It’s Our Job to Fight Against It From Within, 31 August. Available at: https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025-08-31/ty-article-opinion/.premium/we-israelis-are-part-of-a-crime-family-its-our-job-to-fight-against-it-from-within/00000198-ff06-d2dc-afde-ff1f611a0000?fbclid=IwY2xjawMl_6NleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHijQscasllV3isb66-2fCehT01Xf9Md2GJhBd6nt6dNWgtsYfA0lSUCLGKeH_aem_DV3gZ_1YnQD7L5lgHurshQ
