Head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turktoday (Tuesday) pleaded with Israel to suspend the legal reform and open it to a wider discussion.
“These changes may weaken human rights for everyone and especially for the more vulnerable communities and groups in society who are less able to protect their rights through representation in the executive and legislative branches of government. Changes that go to the heart of a country’s constitutional structure and that affect established institutional safeguards should only be made after consultation extensive and with broad political and public agreement,” he claimed.
Even earlier, US Ambassador to Israel Tom Neides called for slowing down the legal reform legislative process and achieving a broad consensus on the issue. Shelly, hit the brakes. Slow down, try to get a consensus, it’s terribly, very complex and they’re trying to push it too fast.”
“The US will not dictate to Israel how to choose judges for the Supreme Court”, but he emphasized that “the democratic institutions are what connects the two countries. This is how we defend Israel at the UN, and this is how we stand by our shared values.”
As a reminder, last night the Knesset plenum approved two of the reform laws in the judicial system in the first reading. The first bill concerned the composition of the committee for the selection of judges, and the second the abolition of judicial review of fundamental laws. 63 Knesset members voted in favor of both proposals, and 47 opposed.