Israel’s parliamentary Constitution Committee moved a key clause of the judicial reform forward on Wednesday evening, one that would limit the Israeli judiciary’s ability to overrule government decisions based on a “reasonableness standard.”
Earlier this year, this clause forced Israel’s Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu to dismiss a minister, Arie Deri, due to previous convictions of tax fraud and a promise he made to the courts not to reenter politics, after the Supreme Court intervened using the reasonableness standard.
The Constitution Committee voted amongst its members to put the latest edition of the reasonableness clause of the judicial reform to a general vote next week, nine voted in favor and seven against. The opposition proclaimed, “you will remember this forever. You are dismantling Israeli society.”
The measure will become law if Israel’s parliament approves it in second and third readings next week. The initial edition was already approved on first reading on July 11. “We’ve done it! Monday at the plenary session will be a day of celebration,” exulted coalition whip Ofir Katz.
The committee’s session saw plenty of internal unrest after parliamentary advisers to left-wing lawmakers burst in during the proceedings and chanted protest slogans before being expelled. Israel’s Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana subsequently ordered that the protesters be kept away from the parliament building until the end of the summer session.
Leaders of the anti-judicial reform movement announced the continuation of demonstrations, which have been taking place in the country for 28 weeks. U.S. President Joe Biden recently called on Netanyahu to halt the legislation until a “broad” public consensus could be reached.
Chair of the Knesset’s Constitution Committee, Simcha Rothman, spoke to i24NEWS on July 12, after the first plenum vote, saying those demonstrating against the judicial reform either “don’t know what they’re talking about or are just trying to deceive the public.” i24 News