Opponents say the changes will cripple judicial independence, encourage corruption and hurt minority rights.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his government plans to press ahead with a proposal to overhaul the country’s judiciary, despite fierce criticism from senior legal officials.
Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, has made the legal changes the centerpiece of his new government’s agenda, and growing opposition to them poses an early challenge for the Israeli leader.
Netanyahu’s comments on Sunday came after opponents of the plan staged nationwide protests on Saturday.
They say it will cripple judicial independence, encourage corruption, limit minority rights and rob Israeli courts of the credibility that helps fend off war crimes accusations abroad.
The proposed changes sparked outrage from senior Supreme Court judges who, in rare public criticism, called the proposed changes “an unbridled attack on the judiciary”.
The country’s attorney general also spoke out against the plan, as did many of her predecessors.
Israeli police officers prevent protesters from blocking a highway during a rally against government plans to change the country’s legal system, in Tel Aviv, Israel, January 14, 2023. [Oded Balilty/AP Photo]
Despite the opposition, Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting that voters had voted in the November election to back his campaign promise to overhaul the judiciary.
“We will complete the reform legislation in a way that will fix what needs fixing, fully protect individual rights, and restore the public’s faith in the judicial system that so desperately needs this reform,” Netanyahu said.
There have been calls in the past to reform Israel’s judiciary, which was given more influence in the 1990s and has since been seen by critics as too meddlesome in the lawmaking process.
But the sweeping changes demanded by Netanyahu’s justice minister have raised alarm among opponents, who see them as the death knell for Israel’s system of checks and balances and, in turn, its democracy.
Netanyahu and his allies see the changes as a way to ease the process of governance and realign what they say is an imbalance between the country’s executive and judicial powers.
Critics say the changes could help Netanyahu avoid a conviction in his corruption trial or cause the trial to disappear altogether. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing.
“Deep Disagreement”
Netanyahu heads a government of ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties whose agendas have sometimes in the past been thwarted by Supreme Court rulings or adverse advice from government legal advisers.
This has led them to ensure that legal changes are a top priority during negotiations to form a government. Netanyahu, eager to return to power under the shadow of his corruption trial, appeared inclined to be generous with his negotiating partners.
Among those concessions was a promise to put Avi Maoz, head of a small religious ultranationalist party that has repeatedly spouted anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, in charge of certain education programs. The cabinet approved the pledge on Sunday, despite outrage from mayors and Israeli parents when it was first mooted.
Meanwhile, Israel’s president warned on Sunday that the country was facing a “historic constitutional crisis” over the disputed judicial reform plan and said he was mediating between the parties concerned.
“We are in the grip of a deep discord that is tearing our nation apart. This conflict worries me deeply, as it worries many in Israel and around the world [Jewish] Diaspora,” President Isaac Herzog said in a statement.
Herzog, whose post lacks executive powers and is meant to unify an often divided Israeli society, said he is “working full-time, by all means, making continuous efforts with the relevant parties to create a comprehensive, thoughtful and respectful discussion and dialogue’.
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