Israel Supreme Court Jerusalem (Wikipedia)
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on Sunday restarted the legislative process in the Knesset for the passage of its controversial judicial reform plan, specifically a new law to curtail the Israel Supreme Court’s power to review the validity of new laws and government actions. In March Netanyahu agreed to suspend the process and hold a dialog on a possible compromise with the opposition, but those negotiations ended in failure.
The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, chaired by MK Simcha Rothman (from the right-wing Religious Zionism Party), convened Sunday and began to prepare for first reading the proposed amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary (Amendment—Reasonableness Standard). The bill proposes to add to section 15 of Basic Law: The Judiciary the wording: “In spite of what is stated in this basic law, those holding judicial power by law, including the Supreme Court, shall not hear [a case] nor issue an order against the Government, the Prime Minister, a Government minister or another elected official, as determined by law, on the reasonableness of their decision.”
In other words, the Netanyahu government wants the law to expressly prohibit the courts from engaging in any review of government actions based solely on their merit, and not a constitutional issue.
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at [email protected].
Thank you.
Committee Chair Rothman stated, “The reasonableness standard does not say that elected officials are not subject to the law, but rather this is a standard used when there is no cause to undo the administrative act or a cause of irrelevant considerations. The reduction is intended for all the cases in which the court, as Yesh Atid Chairman Lapid put it, takes over the decision-making in the country.”
“When dealing with the reasonableness of elected officials’ decisions, we find that the court uses this standard excessively,” he added. “We could have engaged in wordplay and said that it would only intervene in extremely unreasonable cases, of red flags, but the weakness of such reduction attempts has been pointed out by many critics. A proposal that does not apply to elected officials is balanced and serves democratic interests. The reasonableness of elected officials is scrutinized by the voting public and there is a democratic rationale for it not to apply to them.”
Massive protests have rocked Israel since January, when Justice Minister Yariv Levin revealed the government’s plans to alter the nature of Israel’s judicial system. The government’s judicial reform plan would greatly curtail the power of Israel’s Supreme Court to nullify legislation passed by the Knesset and also limit the authority of Israel’s attorney general. The opposition charges this would harm Israel’s democracy, eroding foreign confidence in the country and hurting its economy. And this is why the country is now on the brink of what some are describing as the biggest societal clash in Israel’s history.
