Israel’s weekly protests against judicial reform revealed in January have never stopped, even when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succumbed to street pressure in March and paused the legislative process to negotiate with the opposition. But with that dialogue broken and after deputies passed one of the controversial clauses on Monday evening, protests gained new impetus in a “day of defiance” yesterday. Thousands of people blocked Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport and major highways, to which police responded with water cannons and detained more than 70 people.
The clause passed in the first of three votes, to “shame” on the part of the opposition, concerns “reasonableness”. This allowed the Supreme Court to block decisions made by the government and other elected officials as unreasonable. For example, this argument was used to force Netanyahu to sack Aryeh Deri (of the Shas party) from ministerial posts (including deputy prime minister), while judges ruled that his 1999 convictions for fraud and bribery should remove him from the executive branch. to delete. This while there is no law for this.
This is just one of the judiciary reform measures, which critics say undermine Israeli democracy and are designed to protect the prime minister (in the hands of the judiciary over fraud and corruption – he denies everything). For Netanyahu’s government, which returned to power late last year thanks to far-right parties, the changes are necessary to allow for a rebalancing of powers between the judiciary and the legislature and executive.
For example, the controversial reform aims to change the way judges are appointed, giving the government a majority vote at the time of decision. Likewise, the executive branch will have more power to choose the president of the Supreme Court. Netanyahu also wants to draw strength from legal advisers working for various ministries, as they currently have the power to block legislation. And the limitation of arguments that can be used to argue that the prime minister is incapable of holding the position has also been passed at first reading.
since March Netanyahu has already withdrawn part of the reform, which covered the clause that allows Supreme Court judges to block any legislation. The prime minister wanted the Knesset to be given the power to veto any Supreme Court decision, effectively having the final say. Netanyahu said so in an interview with Wall Street Journal, that this would not continue.
Source: DN
