The chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, MK Simcha Rotman, was interviewed this morning (Sunday) by GLAZ and addressed the uproar surrounding the planned reform of the justice system promoted by him and his coalition members.
After the broadcast of the interview with Rothman: “Olan Shishi” is under attack – and this is the reason
Once and for all: the experts determine whether the legal reform will benefit or harm Israel?
“The cynicism is tremendous, they are talking about the consequences of the reform, and the question is asked, how did you manage to forget who is responsible for this event, when you talk about the protest, I receive calls – they published my phone number – I was bombarded with messages, but to every person I could answer I answered, I am not Hiding from the public, very nice, frightened people called me, and the one who scares them is none other than Yair Lapid, and it is you, in the media, people who tell them that if we elect judges like in every democratic country in the world, we will turn into a dictatorship, the masquerade ball is over,” Rotman attacked at the beginning of the interview. “This anxiety has no place. The goal of all these people is to inflame the anxiety, to talk all the time about the anxiety and not about the matter, not about the essence.”
As for the articles in the reform concerning the committee for the appointment of judges, and the prohibition against disqualifying fundamental laws, the chairman of the Constitution Committee said: “Prohibition against disqualifying fundamental laws – the official position that the Knesset has been submitting to the court for decades, this is the majority of ruling positions, to establish a simple matter, the court said that when it Abrogates laws, he does it by virtue of basic laws, they state that courts cannot cancel basic laws. As for the committee for the selection of judges, I do not know a single normal democratic country where the sitting judges have a veto on who enters there, today there are three sitting judges in the Supreme Court out of nine, and if the sitting judges object, do the judges in the Supreme Court have a veto today? Does Russia Is there a veto in the UN Security Council? Do other people have a veto? Today, judges have a veto in the Supreme Court. Judges have a veto in the committee for selecting judges, there is no normal country where this happens. Now you claim that the elected officials also have a veto, and the coalition acts as a block, I was a member of the committee for selecting judges, I will tell you that the representatives of the coalition in the last Knesset were Gideon Sa’ar, Raiten and Ayelet Shaked, they did not act as a block, therefore to say that the coalition also has a veto is not true, I propose to appoint a representative of the opposition in the committee for the selection of judges, and this has not been until today, I am appointing it, I propose a public hearing in the constitution committee, to avoid a situation of appointment by associates, this is for the first reading only. How does a person who wants to appoint associates to the Supreme Court offer a public hearing to the representatives of the opposition, is this what a person who wants a dictatorship looks like?”
On the repeal of the ‘Saar’ law: “My proposal is different from the proposal that my opponent Levin proposed, I have no public representatives, because I believe that public representatives are elected in the Knesset, you say that as soon as the coalition has a majority, the opposition has no meaning, this is an insulting perception as someone who has been in the opposition in recent times , I think it’s really a lack of understanding of what the role of the opposition is and how democracy works, in a democracy the opposition also has a role, in restraining the power of the majority, when there are representatives within the committee who cannot be worked behind their backs, and there is a public hearing, the public hearing that takes place in the Constitutional Committee means that only candidates Deserving will be promoted to the top.”
Rothman claimed that it is the coalition that rejects the compromise outline proposed by President Yitzhak Herzog and refuses to enter into negotiations: “I think it is very important to promote the promise to the voters and to promote the democracy of the Third Kingdom of Israel, because when the Third Kingdom of Israel is not democratic many people feel excluded from it, Some are protesting and protesting, some are discouraged, now the opportunity is given to fix the system and make it democratic. I think the responsibility requires us to try and pass these things with a broad consensus. When the president said, we have come to talk, the first reading was rejected and there was no need to fight too much. The president said let’s talk Before the first reading, Levin and I said that we were ready without preconditions, a week passed from that statement, Gantz and Lapid refused to come, in addition to another request that was received by us and rejected by Gantz and Lapid, it is not true that the coalition is not ready for talks. Stopping the legislation is an opposition campaign. There is no point and no benefit in stalling, those who want to speak, I hold non-stop talks and I am ready, there is plenty of room to introduce changes, and compromises, those who demand a stall – Yair Lapid showed it excellently, my heart goes out to MK Saada and Arbel who refrained from raising the proposals H And their privacy, and Yair Lapid said in response – we won, we continue the protest.”