The Israeli Supreme Court has announced the invalidation of a key provision of the controversial judicial reform promoted by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The invalidated measure provided deprive the judiciary of the right to decide on the “reasonableness” of the decisions of the government or the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament.
The Supreme Court has approved eight votes against seven this rule and has supported with the vote of twelve magistrates the ability of the courts to review the laws approved by Parliament. The courts thus preserve their powers to intervene and annul, exceptionally and in extreme cases, regulations in which the Knesset or Parliament exceeds its authority.
This judicial reform has been the reason for months of mobilizations against the Netayahu Government, whom the opposition accuses of totalitarianism and to attack the division of powers by attempting to reduce the scope of the law of reasonableness to the administrative level and leaving out the level of elected officials. Even the Israeli attorney general, Gali Baharav Miara, has expressed her rejection of the now repealed rule.
The protests have only ceased after the October 7 attacks by Hamas against Israeli soil that left some 1,200 dead and led to a retaliatory military operation against the Gaza Strip.
“Impossible to legislate”
He Justice minister of the Israeli Government and architect of judicial reform, Yariv Levinhas denounced that with this sentence the judges arrogate to themselves the three powers into which the State should be divided.
“They are taking into their hands all the powers that in a democracy are divided between the three powers,” he stated, according to ‘The Times of Israel’. “It is impossible to legislate even a basic law or make a decision in the Knesset or in the Government without the approval of the Supreme Court, thereby depriving millions of citizens of their voice,” she reproached.
For Levin, this is an unprecedented sentence in the democratic world, although he stressed that the Government “will continue to act with restraint and responsibility” as long as the military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip continues.
He Knesset Speaker Amir Ohanahas stated that “it is evident that The Supreme Court has no authority to overturn basic laws,” but “it is even more evident that we cannot deal with this for so long while we are in the middle of a war.
The Minister of Culture and Sports, Miki Zohar, has also regretted the ruling. “It would have been better if this sentence had come out after these difficult moments if only to avoid the return of divisive speeches (…). We must bite our lips, demonstrate responsibility and maintain unity. It is our responsibility towards the fallen,” he argued.
from the party Likud of Netanyahu have also warned that the ruling be issued “when right-wing and left-wing soldiers fight and put their lives in danger.” “It contradicts the people’s desire for unity, especially at this time of war,” he warned.
The ruling “puts an end to the conflict”
For the leader of the opposition Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapidfailure “ends a difficult year of conflict that has divided us from within and has led us to the worst disaster in our history.
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Lapid has highlighted that “the origin of power in Israel, the basis for Israeli strength, is in our character as a Jewish, democratic, liberal and law-abiding state“. “If the Government resumes the dispute over the Supreme Court, it means that they have not learned anything,” he stressed.
The leader of the Labor Party, Merav Michaeli, He highlighted for his part that “even conservative judges have ruled today that the court has the authority to review and invalidate basic laws.” “There is no more obvious statement for those who attack and destroy democracy. Israeli democracy will not surrender,” she added.