Bethan McKernan
The Guardian / June 14, 2023
Fresh protests expected against proposals as opposition members threaten to quit compromise talks.
A key vote in Israel’s Knesset related to the government’s bitterly contested judicial overhaul is set to be delayed at the behest of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a move that could torpedo negotiations with the opposition and galvanize the anti-legislation protest movement.
Parliamentarians were due on Wednesday to elect two political representatives to the country’s nine-member judicial selection committee, the composition of which is one of the most important issues in the now six-month-old political crisis.
Historically, one political appointee has been chosen by the government and one by the opposition, but several hardliners in Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition had demanded that both positions be filled by government representatives.
The vote is widely viewed as a referendum on the judicial overhaul package’s future. Maintaining the status quo would appease the opposition but anger Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners and some members of his Likud party, threatening the stability of his government. The imminent retirement of two supreme court judges has raised the stakes.
Netanyahu had delivered mixed messages before the scheduled vote, only for his coalition to announce at the last minute that it would vote against all candidates. If the secret ballot ends in a stalemate, a new vote must be held within 30 days.
Opposition members of the Knesset said this week that if their nominated representative was not elected to the committee on Wednesday, they would withdraw from compromise talks brokered by Israel’s figurehead president, Isaac Herzog. The negotiations have yielded little so far.
Protests against the judicial changes are expected on the streets of Tel Aviv on Wednesday evening.
“Netanyahu has lost control of his government and is being held hostage by extremists,” the centrist opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said as the voting was held. “He is destroying Israel’s democracy, our economy, our security and the unity of our society.”
Netanyahu returned to office in late December for his sixth stint as prime minister at the head of the most rightwing government in Israeli history. It quickly announced wide-ranging legislation to curb the outsized power of the supreme court and its perceived leftwing bias. The measures could also help Netanyahu evade prosecution in his corruption trial, in which he denies all charges.
Critics at home and abroad say the overhaul would erase democratic norms and politicize the judiciary.
The proposals, introduced in January, sparked Israel’s biggest ever protest movement, buoyed up by unexpected pressure from Tel Aviv’s tech sector and military reservists.
The months of political turmoil have damaged the shekel, which dropped more than 2% against the dollar before the vote on Wednesday, before regaining slightly to 1.4% down.
Bethan McKernan is Jerusalem correspondent for the Guardian
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Israel prepares for vote related to controversial judicial reform plan
Bethan McKernan
The Guardian / June 13, 2023
Knesset to elect two members to judges selection committee, with hardliners in ruling coalition pushing to pick both members.
Israeli politics is once again reaching a fever pitch before a crucial vote related to the government’s controversial proposals to overhaul the judiciary.
The Knesset will convene on Wednesday to elect two representatives to Israel’s judicial selection committee – the composition of which is at the heart of the now six-month-old battle over the future of Israeli democracy.
Two of the nine members of the panel, which appoints judges, are political appointments. Historically, one has been chosen by the government and one by the opposition.
The opposition has put forward the centre-left Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharar as a candidate, but several hardliners in the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition have demanded that both positions are filled with their own representatives.
Whether the status quo will be maintained is expected to indicate how much appetite Netanyahu has to push on with the bitterly contested judicial changes package. He has sent mixed signals over the overhaul’s future, but it remains a central goal for his far-right partners and some members of his Likud party: abandoning it could threaten his coalition.
Netanyahu returned to office in late December at the head of the most rightwing government in Israeli history, and his justice minister soon announced the wide-ranging judicial overhaul aimed at curbing the outsized power of the supreme court and its perceived leftwing bias. The measures could also help Netanyahu evade prosecution in his corruption trial, in which he denies all charges.
Critics counter that the measures will erase democratic norms, handing politicians too much power by allowing a simple majority in the Knesset to overrule almost all of the court’s decisions, and politicize the judiciary by adding more parliamentarians, or MKs, to the judicial selection committee.
News of the proposals damaged Israel’s economy and inflamed tensions with international allies worried about the country’s democratic health, as well as sparking the country’s largest-ever protest movement, including unexpected pressure from the tech sector and military reservists.
The debate reached a climax in late March when Netanyahu fired his Defence minister, Yoav Gallant, over his objections to the changes: wildcat strikes in response brought the country to a standstill, leading the prime minister to announce that the legislation would be delayed until the summer parliamentary session.
Israel’s figurehead president, Isaac Herzog, has since brokered halting compromise talks between the government and the opposition, but the negotiations have yielded little in the way of concrete solutions. Gadi Eizenkot, an opposition lawmaker, told Army Radio on Tuesday that if no opposition representative was elected to the judges selection committee, talks would be terminated.
Netanyahu has kept his thoughts on Wednesday’s vote to himself, and despite intense opposition lobbying of unconvinced coalition members it is still not clear which way the vote will go. The prime minister told the Likud party last week that “the reform is not dead, but we are making every effort in talks in order to reach broad agreements”.
One potential deal floated in the Hebrew media this week would see Elharar, the opposition candidate, appointed to the judicial selection committee, in exchange for opposition support for the reinstatement of the influential Ultra-Orthodox politician Aryeh Deri as a cabinet minister.
The supreme court ruled that Deri could not serve as a minister in January, shortly after the coalition entered office, because of a previous conviction for tax offences. The affair deepened the rift over the power of Israel’s courts.
Bethan McKernan is Jerusalem correspondent for The Guardian
