Israel’s Knesset voted Monday to advance a bill seeking to restrict the Supreme Court’s powers by limiting their ability to overrule governmental decision-making. Having cleared its first reading, the bill must now be passed through two more Knesset votes before becoming law.
The bill at issue is Netanyahu’s ruling coalition’s new “scaled down” reform bill, which proposes limiting the court’s use of “reasonableness” as a standard of judicial review. While proponents claim that the current test allows the judiciary to interpret governmental actions according to their own subjective politics, critics have decried the measure as a “corruption bill,” highlighting the test’s role as a means of reviewing governmental decisions that may be arbitrary and extremely unreasonable. Similar standards of review currently exist in many democratic legal systems, including the UK, Canada and Australia.
Opponents of the bill have harshly decried it as anti-democratic and damaging to Israel’s integrity as a country. Prior to the Knesset vote, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid stated, “I am telling you that if this bill passes, it will make the State of Israel weaker, poorer, more isolated and more divided.” Lapid continued, “If it’s not voted down in first reading, it will be voted down in the second and third readings, and if not, it will be struck down by the Supreme Court, and if not, then this accursed Government will be brought down by the voters.”
As with the government’s first attempt at judicial reform, Netanyahu’s new bill has sparked growing protests throughout the country, with tens of thousands of protestors staging a “day of disruption” on Tuesday. At least 66 people were reported arrested by 2:50pm local time, and police were seen clashing with demonstrators, including video footage which shows law enforcement officials violently detaining a Haaretz photojournalist. The state’s response to protests caused Tel Aviv’s police chief to resign late last week, citing requests from Netanyahu’s cabinet to “crackdown” on protestors.
The push to reform Israel’s judicial system, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, has been a deep source of controversy and division since Netanyahu initially proposed more sweeping reforms eight months ago. Following intense protests and disruptions across the country, including the firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for opposing the reforms, Netanyahu opted to delay the reforms to “avoid civil war through dialogue.”
