Never in the 75 years of history of the State of Israel something similar had been seen. The 15 magistrates of the Supreme Court, that is, all the members of the court, have met for the first time since its creation in 1948 to attend a historic hearing. During this Tuesday, the judges are hearing petitions against and in favor of the first of the laws of the judicial reform promoted by the far-right government of Binyamin Netanyahu. The streets of Israel have been abuzz for days as the protests of the unprecedented civil movement that emerged as a result of this legislative project that they consider dangerous for their democracy.
“Today we are here with millions of citizens to stop the bang of the government”, he said from the judicial headquarters Eliad Shraga, president of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, in charge of presenting the petition along with other civil society groups. “Together we will preserve Israeli democracy,” he defended. Right-wing activists have also expressed their opinion at the doors of the Supreme Court. “The people are the sovereign!” shouted about forty people holding signs claiming to have voted for Netanyahu, not the president of the high court. Esther Hayut. In this hearing, the magistrates must decide whether to accept limits on their own powers, since that is what the reasonableness law approved by Parliament in July intends.
This law became a reality with 64 votes in favor and none against, since the deputies of the opposition They left the plenary session in protest. Establishes that the judges They can no longer annul ministerial decisions using the legal standard of “reasonableness,” thus ending one of the amendments to the Basic Laws of the Israeli democratic system. He Hebrew state It does not have a constitution but operates based on 13 basic laws. The high court has the capacity of a Constitutional Court to annul those laws that conflict with some basic law. He has done it twenty times since he was granted this power in the 1990s to avoid government decisions or appointments considered unsound or corrupt.
36 weeks of protest
So far, the Supreme Court has not struck down a basic law as it is trying to decide now. The unprecedented aspect of the occasion could lead to a constitutional crisis without precedents. In recent weeks, the Government in power, the most conservative In Israel’s history, he has issued stern warnings against the court. Netanyahu and his allies extreme right They consider that it does not have the power to overthrow the law and that this “could lead to anarchy.” Amir Ohana, president of the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, predicts an “abyss” and affirms that the legislative chamber “would not submissively allow itself to be trampled.” Netanyahu has not clarified whether he will abide by the court’s decision. “I hope we don’t come to that,” he said.
Related news
Tens and even hundreds of thousands of people have been taking to the streets for 36 consecutive weeks to protest against this controversy judicial reform. They defend the importance of guaranteeing these powers of the Supreme Court that act as guarantor of the secular character of Israel, as protector of its minorities and as a bulwark against him authoritarianism of their leaders. Throughout this Tuesday, once again, all those masses of Israelis have thrown themselves at the doors of institutional buildings to defend their democracy.
While the Polarization It has already spread throughout Israel. An Israel Democracy Institute poll finds that 34% of Israelis believe petitions to repeal the law should be accepted, 37% believe it should be rejected, and 29% do not know. The Supreme Court can extend until January to decide whether to allow the Executive to take away the power that allows it, in some way, to control it, but which the Government considers to be disproportionate.