2023-07-23 18:40:30
This Monday Israel’s parliament is due to vote on a controversial judicial reform that has brought tens of thousands of protesters to the streets. On Saturday, more than half a million people demonstrated against Netanyahu’s proposal to curb the powers of judges. Opponents fear it will undermine Israel’s democracy, while lawmakers began discussing a crucial part of the reform and the country’s president tries to seek a consensus agreement.
The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, has confirmed this Sunday that it continues with the efforts to try to reach a consensus agreement on the controversial judicial reform promoted by the Government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that has caused a spiral of massive protests and opposition mobilizations. Herzog has reported that he continues to work “to explore in depth the negotiation initiatives to reach an agreement between the parties,” according to the newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’.
consensus proposal
This same Sunday the general secretary of the main Israeli trade union confederation, Histadrut, Arnon Bar Davidand a representative of the employer, Dubi Amitai, have submitted a “compromise proposal”. We ask everyone to immediately support this compromise proposal for the future of the country and to save Israeli society,” David and Amitai said in a joint statement.
The proposal states that the courts they cannot overthrow the decisions of the Government appealing to the “sensible clause”, as the Government claims, provided that they are “policy issues” and that they have been unanimously approved by the Council of Ministers. Also the judges they could not question the appointments of ministers or deputy ministers. “All the other decisions of the ministers would be subject to judicial review, also with the criterion of reasonableness,” they explained. These changes would also not be effective until the formation of the government after the next elections.
rejections
With respect to the rest of the aspects of the judicial reform, unions and employers propose a 18 month moratorium in which legislative changes could only be approved with the support of two thirds of the Knesset or Israeli Parliament. The match Likud of Netanyahu and the leaders of the protest movement have already expressed their rejection of the Histadrut proposal. For the Likud it would mean the “unilateral acceptance” of the opposition’s positions.
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“It is a total emasculation of the reasonableness amendment and a complete concession on all other aspects of judicial reform,” Likud said in a statement. “We continue with the efforts for a real commitment,” he added. In fact, this Sunday the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, 73, is hospitalized. He has undergone surgery to implant a pacemaker, days after being hospitalized for dizziness.
For the protest movement Kaplan The proposal is not acceptable since it does not comply with its main demand: the total withdrawal of the judicial reform. “Agreements in which Israel ultimately becomes a dictatorship are even worse,” they have argued. However, opposition leader Yair Lapid has criticized Likud for rejecting the union and employer proposal. “It is not clear who has decided to say ‘no’, but it is clearer than ever that the extremists in the government have decided to push the State of Israel towards the abyss,” he said.
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