![]() ![]() But the crisis has not abated and he looks weak, beholden to the demands of others to keep his government intact. Technically, Netanyahu has pulled off yet another personal victory with this vote: he managed to appease the rightwing base, angered by March’s postponement, and unite his fractious coalition. Riot police use water cannon to clear demonstrators in Tel Aviv. Weakening the supreme court, which plays a key checks and balances role when it comes to individual rights, is essential for furthering those goals. Total annexation of the occupied West Bank, strengthening traditional religious law, limiting freedom of speech and rolling back women’s rights and those of the gay and Arab communities are all on the coalition’s agenda. The changes could help Netanyahu evade prosecution in his corruption trial, in which he denies all charges. ![]() Proponents of the judicial changes, introduced almost immediately after Netanyahu returned to office at the helm of the most rightwing and religious governing coalition in Israeli history in December, say they are needed to better balance the branches of government and combat a perceived leftwing bias in the unelected supreme court’s rulings.Ĭritics say they will allow a simple majority in the Knesset to overrule almost all of the court’s decisions and give politicians more control over appointments to the bench. For people on both sides of the debate, the fight is seen as no less than a battle for Israel’s soul, a confrontation of the tensions inherent in the relationship between the Jewish and democratic nature of the state. The proposals for the judiciary have exposed deep political rifts in Israeli society and sparked the biggest protest movement the country has ever seen. The protest movement may slow down a bit over the summer but it is definitely not going away.” “But now the supreme court can’t override government decisions any more, I expect we will get inappropriate appointments and firings of public officials over the recess. ![]() “We are headed into the summer break and the amendment hasn’t been formally signed into law yet, so it might not be until October that the government can start really using this new power. “There are two major questions now: what is the protest movement going to do next, and what is the government going to do?” said Dr Dahlia Scheindlin, a political analyst and policy fellow at the Century Foundation. Perhaps most urgently, people are waiting to see whether upwards of 10,000 military reservists who vowed to stop reporting for service if the bill was passed will follow through on their promise – an unprecedented development that could severely cripple the Israel Defence Forces’ operational capabilities.Ī hairdresser in Jerusalem holds a copy of Israel Today with a blacked-out front page. The Israel Medical Association announced a 24-hour walkout, and more strike action and widespread protests are expected after a night in which several confrontations between protesters and police became violent when law enforcement used water cannon and skunk gas to disperse people blocking roads.Ī constitutional crisis is brewing: several petitions have been filed to the supreme court asking it to weigh in on the legitimacy of legislation curbing its own powers. On Tuesday, the front pages of three national newspapers were blacked out with the caption “a black day for Israeli democracy”, an advert taken out by a protest group opposed to the plans for the judiciary. Israel now finds itself in uncharted waters. The amendment abolishing the supreme court’s ability to overrule government decisions on the grounds of “reasonableness” passed by 64-0 after every member of the opposition boycotted the vote in protest. ![]() This time around, however, there was no wavering. Wildcat strikes and huge protests across the country in response forced the prime minister to push the legislation to the Knesset’s summer session. Gallant had been key to the freezing of the judicial overhaul in March, when Netanyahu fired him over his opposition to the changes. ![]()
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