Israel and the Freedom in the World Report: A Pattern of Continuing Decline

In just over a decade, Israel’s score in the report published by Freedom House has fallen by 8 points, a decline that now puts it alongside countries such as Brazil and Namibia.

Anti-judicial overhaul demonstrators. Photo by: Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90

The Washington-based research institute Freedom House recently published its annual Freedom in the World report, which is considered one of the most important and reliable tools for tracking trends in the level of democracy in countries around the world.

In this year’s report, Israel’s score has dropped from 74 (out of 100) to 73. The report divides countries into three categories: free, partly free, and not free. While Israel is still ranked in the first category (“free”), it is impossible to ignore the continuing downward trend, with its score having fallen 8 points from 81 in the report published in 2014 to just 73 today. This is a sizable decline, and Israel now finds itself ranked alongside such countries as Brazil and Namibia.

This trend of democratic retreat is familiar from other countries. But just how is it manifested in Israel?

The report comprises two separate indicators, one measuring political rights and the other civil liberties. Israel has markedly different scores in each indicator: Alongside a highly respectable score of 34 out 40 for political rights, it performs much worse on civil liberties, with a score of just 39 out of 60. As in previous years, the decline in Israel’s overall score stems from its civil liberties rating, reflecting perceptions of Israel as a state that is gradually becoming an “electoral democracy.” This term refers to a country in which there are free elections and real competition for control of government, but which is not sufficiently committed to liberal-democratic values and principles, such as restraints on the power of the government, strong protection of the rule of law, and (to some degree) protection of human and civil rights.

Israel’s score in the Freedom in the World index, 2014–2025

The considerable decline of recent years has been due to violations of civil liberties, such as freedom of demonstration and freedom of expression, as well as harms to civil society. A prominent example is the 2016 legislation that placed more severe restrictions on civil society organizations whose main funding comes from “foreign state entities.” Another harmful trend is the erosion of the rule of law: In 2020, the report noted harms to the gatekeepers fighting corruption, and in 2023, harms to the independence of the judicial system, as manifested in (among other things) the suspension of judicial appointments and the elimination of the standard of reasonableness. In addition, the Iron Swords war also led to a decline in Israel's score in the report published last year, both because of the damage to the personal security of Israelis and because of the large number of administrative detentions of Palestinians. The 2018 Nation-State Law also hurt Israel’s score. For the “free media” parameter, however, Israel gained a point in the 2015 index.

It is important to emphasize: The Freedom in the World index is not perfect, and it is possible to disagree with some of its assessments. Certainly, one could argue that deducting points from Israel in the wake of the October 7 massacre is unjustified, and that the resultant fall in score is not Israel’s fault. But other phenomena, such as the restrictions on civil society and harms to the rule of law and the judicial system, are undoubtedly cause for concern. In this context, it should be noted that Israel has registered a similar decline in other international indicators as well. In the latest indicator (2024) published by V-Dem, another organization that publishes annual democracy indicators, Israel has fallen from the status of a “liberal democracy” (which it has held for more than 50 years) to the status of an “electoral democracy.” And in the democracy index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Israel’s score has consistently declined in recent years.

Even worse, the future does not look any more promising. When it comes to the freedom of action of civil society and the independence of the judicial system—two aspects in which Israel has already deteriorated in recent years—dangerous legislation is currently being advanced, such as a law that seeks to impose an 80% tax on donations from foreign entities to non-profit organizations, or the recently-passed law that changes the mechanism for appointing the ombudsman for complaints against judges. The passage of these laws, and other dangerous legislative proposals on the agenda, will clearly signpost continued democratic retreat in Israel, and will lead to a further decline in Israel’s score in international indicators in the future. The real cause for concern, however, is not Israel’s performance in any single index, but the gradual erosion of the foundations of Israeli democracy.