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After the uprisings generated by his plan to weaken the Supreme Court, Netanyahu was forced to announce “a pause”.
Faced with the scale of the dispute, “Bibi” Netanyahu finally agreed to postpone his disputed justice reform until July. The Israeli Prime Minister made his decision on Monday evening, the day after another night of protests in which thousands of people took to the streets of Tel Aviv against the dismissal of his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant. He had come out in favor of the suspension of the justice reform project initiated by the government. Benyamin Netanyahu therefore ended up giving in to opposition. .
At the roots of this protest movement, the reform of justice wanted by the radical right government. The text aimed to submit the judicial power to the political and legislative power. In Israel, a country with an Anglo-Saxon legal tradition, there is no written Constitution: the Supreme Court is the sole guardian of the fundamental laws. In a way, it combines the powers of the Council of State, the Court of Cassation and the French Constitutional Council. Thus, it is justified in censuring the laws passed by Parliament. Prerogatives pointed out by the Likud and its ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies in power, who denounce the “government of judgesand accuse the magistrates of political activism.
Diet change?
If the reform were definitively adopted despite the suspension, the deputies could impose a law which they will have voted, even in the event of censure by the Court. To do this, an absolute majority vote of 61 deputies, out of the 120 in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), will suffice. In addition, the Minister of Justice Yariv Levin proposed to place the committee for the appointment of judges under the control of politicians. Indeed, of the nine members who make up this very influential institution, six would now be ministers or deputies, against only three magistrates.
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This Monday morning, the law modifying the process for appointing judges was adopted in committee. A “Rebellion“, according to the opponents, who consider that the reform, by submitting the main counter-power to elected officials, threatens the democratic balance. For almost three months, demonstrations have regularly gathered up to several hundred thousand people across the country. A major mobilization for a country with less than ten million inhabitants. While the protests had generally passed off peacefully, clashes between police and demonstrators erupted in Tel Aviv, prompting President Isaac Herzog to ask the government to “stop immediately” reform. “I call on the Prime Minister to reverse the dismissal of Yoav Gallant. The State of Israel cannot at this time, in the face of threats on all fronts, authorize a change of Minister of Defense“, for his part declared the leader of the opposition, Yaïr Lapid. The opponents finally prevailed.
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Beyond popular discontent, the troubles caused by the reform are also economic. The shekel’s exchange rate has been falling steadily since January, raising fears of capital flight. Israel’s largest trade union centre, which announced on Monday “a general strikeimmediate, reversed its decision after Netanyahu announced the temporary halt to the reform.
The project even arouses diplomatic shocks, especially on the side of the United States. Opposed to the reform, Joe Biden stubbornly refuses to receive Netanyahu. Through White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson, he stressed, “the urgent need for a compromise». «Democratic values have always been, and must remain, a hallmark of US-Israel relations“, she warned on Sunday. Despite the announcement of apauseof the legislative process, the demonstrators kept up the pressure and still planned to meet on Monday evening in the streets of Tel Aviv. Until the project is definitively abandoned.