The leader of the Israeli opposition, Yair Lapid, has announced this Monday that he will appeal to the Supreme Court to try to reverse the judicial reform advocated by the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu, approved this Monday in Parliament.
“We will appeal to the Supreme Court against this legislation, which means the unilateral cancellation of the democratic character of the State of Israel, for the undemocratic and predatory way in which the discussions in the constitutional committee of the parliament were carried out,” Lapid said, in a message posted on the social network Twitter.
ל האופי הדמוקרטי של מדינת ישראל, ונגד הדרך האנטי-דמוקרטית ו הדורסנ י ת שבה נוהלו הדיונים בוועדת החוקה.
– יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) July 24, 2023
“They did not win, because the battle has not ended, it is just beginning,” added the opposition leader, this time in a speech broadcast on television, in which he said that the law approved on Monday “violates the rules of the game.”
Yair Lapid’s announcement comes a few hours after the Israeli Parliament approved with 64 votes in favor and none against -after the opposition deputies left the room- the controversial judicial reform.
The reform determines radical changes that increase the powers of the Government in the judicial field, limiting the ability of the Supreme Court to challenge executive decisions (if it considers them contrary to the democratic system) and modifying the way judges are selected.
“This is the most serious crisis we have ever faced and it has not been caused by our enemies, but by an extremist and radical government,” denounced Lapid, who also accused Netanyahu of having become “a puppet of a group of extremists and messianics.”
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, an influential Israeli movement, has also announced that it will go to the Supreme Court to challenge the new legislation, warning that it is “an unconstitutional law because it fundamentally changes the basic structure of parliamentary democracy and the nature of the regime.”
Netanyahu and his government partners assure that the changes are necessary and, from the beginning, they gave signs that they would not change their position, despite the strong protests registered in several cities of the country in recent months.
Protesters challenging the controversial reform, representing various sectors of Israeli society, see the new legislation as a power grab fueled by the personal ambitions of Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges.
Following Monday’s vote in Parliament, Israel’s main union, Histadrut, announced that its leader, Arnon Bar-David, called a meeting with the organization’s leadership to call a general strike for the next few days, in protest of the move.
The Executive led by Netanyahu is the most right-wing government in the history of Israel.
Source: TSF
