Israel\u2019s Supreme Court has struck down\u00a0a controversial government plan\u00a0to limit the powers of the judiciary, in an unprecedented move that threatens to reignite fierce tensions in the country as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wages war against Hamas in Gaza. <\/p>\n
The court ruled,\u00a0by eight votes to seven,\u00a0that a government amendment to the so-called reasonableness law should not stand. The bill had stripped the Supreme Court of the power to declare government decisions unreasonable, and was the first major piece of a multipronged effort to weaken the judiciary to be passed by the Knesset, Israel\u2019s parliament, last year. <\/p>\n
The verdict could reopen an emotional and heated debate that had raged in Israel throughout 2023 but was sidelined following Hamas\u2019 attacks on October 7. And it could cause splits within Israel\u2019s war cabinet, made up of Netanyahu and two prominent critics of his efforts to overhaul the courts. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s next moves will be watched closely by all sides, with the threat of a constitutional crisis looming should he attempt to push ahead with the controversial change. <\/p>\n
In its ruling, the court said it rejected the amendment because it would deal a \u201csevere and unprecedented blow to the core characteristics of the State of Israel as a democratic state.\u201d <\/p>\n
The law, which came into effect after it was passed in July, took away the court\u2019s power to veto government decisions based on them being \u201cunreasonable.\u201d Vast swathes of Israel\u2019s population opposed the change, according to opinion polls, which critics said would erode the independence of the courts and harm Israel\u2019s democracy. <\/p>\n
Its passage caused huge protests \u2013 a regular sight in Israel\u2019s cities since Netanyahu first unveiled his judiciary agenda \u2013 and prompted thousands of army reservists to\u00a0threaten not to show up to work. <\/p>\n
Among those opposing the plans were the two fellow members of Netanyahu\u2019s war cabinet. Yoav Gallant, the minister of defense, became the first member of Netanyahu\u2019s pre-war cabinet to publicly oppose his plans in March, leading to his temporary dismissal before he was reinstated. And Benny Gantz, the leader of Israel\u2019s opposition National Unity party, led protests against the efforts earlier in the year. <\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s allies, including the United States, also\u00a0expressed concern\u00a0about the overhaul. US President Joe Biden told the New York Times in July that Netanyahu was risking the US-Israeli relationship should the overhaul pass without broad consensus. The amendment was passed in the Knesset without a single vote from the opposition, which boycotted the vote. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s allies criticized the ruling Monday. Minister of Justice Yariv Levin, the architect of the judicial overhaul plans, called it \u201cthe opposite of the spirit of unity required these days for the success of our fighters on the front.\u201d The Israeli prime minister\u2019s Likud party said the ruling was \u201cunfortunate\u201d as it \u201cis against the will of the people for unity, especially during wartime.\u201d <\/p>\n
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a post on X that the Supreme Court had his full backing as it \u201cfaithfully fulfilled its role in protecting the citizens of Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n
The reasonableness doctrine is not unique to Israel\u2019s judiciary. The principle is used in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. <\/p>\n
The standard is commonly used by courts there to determine the constitutionality or lawfulness of a given piece of legislation, and allows judges to make sure that decisions made by public officials are \u201creasonable.\u201d <\/p>\n
The prime minister and his supporters have argued that the Supreme Court has become an insular, elitist group that does not represent the Israeli people. They say it has overstepped its role, getting into issues it should not rule on, and the proposed changes would correct that trend. <\/p>\n
But critics say Netanyahu pushed the overhaul forward to protect himself from his own corruption trial, where he faces charges of\u00a0fraud, bribery and breach of trust. He denies any wrongdoing. <\/p>\n
The government bill amended one of Israel\u2019s Basic Laws, which, in the absence of a formal constitution, act as an informal one. Until Monday\u2019s ruling, the Supreme Court had never before struck down a Basic Law or an amendment to one. <\/p>\n
In their ruling, 12 out of the 15 judges agreed that the court had the authority to nullify a Basic Law in \u201cextreme cases.\u201d Only eight of the 12 thought this was an extreme case. <\/p>\n
The debates over Netanyahu\u2019s efforts were paused on October 7, with Hamas\u2019 attacks on Israel prompting the formation of a war cabinet and seemingly suspending the back-and-forth of Israel\u2019s sharply divided politics. <\/p>\n
But on December 29, a leak of a draft document that pointed to\u00a0Monday\u2019s ruling\u00a0caused the issue to reemerge. <\/p>\n
Reacting to the leak, Minister of Justice Levin claimed that \u201ccitizens of Israel expect the Supreme Court not to publish during a war a ruling that is controversial even among its judges.\u201d The speaker of the Knesset, Amir Ohana, added that \u201ca time of war is certainly not the time to establish a first precedent of its kind in the history of the country.\u201d <\/p>\n
But the Supreme Court was required to release its ruling by January 12, as two justices hearing the case have retired and are required by law to submit their final rulings within three months of stepping down. <\/p>\n\n
Israel\u2019s Supreme Court has struck down\u00a0a controversial government plan\u00a0to limit the powers of the judiciary, in an unprecedented move that threatens to reignite fierce tensions in the country as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wages war against Hamas in Gaza. The court ruled,\u00a0by eight votes to seven,\u00a0that a government amendment to the so-called reasonableness law should <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}