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judicial coup
Israeli Parliament Approves Part of Judicial Overhaul as Protests Rage
Israel's top labor union threatened a general strike and demonstrators blocked the entrance to the Knesset as Netanyahu's coalition voted unanimously in favor of the measure.
Jul 24, 2023
Update:
Israeli lawmakers on Monday approved part of a proposed judicial overhaul that would limit the Supreme Court's power to check government action, a key priority of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government.
The vote took place as protests raged outside the Israeli Knesset and across the country. Polling has shown that a majority of Israelis oppose the sweeping overhaul, which has sparked mass outrage across Israel in recent months.
The bill approved Monday would prevent the Supreme Court from blocking government actions that the body deems "unreasonable."
The Wall Street Journalreported that "Netanyahu's entire coalition of 64 lawmakers voted in favor of the legislation, after efforts to reach a compromise collapsed."
"The opposition lawmakers in the 120-seat parliament, known as the Knesset, walked out of the room," the Journal added.
According toHaaretz, the corruption watchdog Movement for Government Quality "appealed to the Supreme Court against the law to abolish the reasonableness standard shortly after it was approved in the Knesset on its third reading."
The group said the newly passed measure is "illegal as it significantly alters the nature of governance in the country and undermines the separation of powers," Haaretz reported. "The movement also added that serious flaws in the legislative process were found, including the lack of involvement of Knesset members in the legislation and the absence of adequate and comprehensive factual and legal foundation."
Earlier:
Protesters chained themselves to fences and blocked the entrance to the Knesset on Monday as Israeli lawmakers prepared to vote on legislation that would overhaul the nation's judiciary, limiting the power of the Supreme Court to strike down laws—a move seen as a power grab by far-right forces led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The push for the bill has been the catalyst for months of intense protests across Israel, with demonstrators taking to the streets by the hundreds of thousands, workers walking off the job, and businesses shutting their doors to express outrage over what opponents of the overhaul have described as a "judicial coup."
A vote on a section of the legislation is expected Monday as prominent figures, including Israeli President Isaac Herzog, continued to call for a compromise measure that Netanyahu's Likud party has thus far rejected.
"This is a national emergency," Herzog said Monday. "It's time for responsibility."
Histadrut, Israel's largest labor federation, has indicated that it will call a nationwide strike if the proposal isn't weakened—though leaders of the protests against the judicial overhaul have said they'll accept nothing less than a complete halt to the legislation. A general strike led by Histadrut in March grounded much of the country to a halt.
While the Israeli Supreme Court has been an extremely weak check on the government's systematic oppression of Palestinians and illegal land confiscations, the proposed judicial overhaul could completely eliminate any remaining barriers to far-right efforts to dramatically expand settlements and further roll back Palestinians' rights.
Monday's vote will come amid international outrage over mounting violence by settlers and Israeli forces in the West Bank, where Israel recently launched its largest attack in two decades.
Israel doesn't have a formal constitution, so the nation's high court uses the subjective legal standard of "reasonableness" to assess whether a law should stand. The Netanyahu government's proposed judicial overhaul would restrict the Supreme Court's use of "reasonableness" in striking down laws, appointments, and other actions.
As The New York Timesreported last week, "Opponents of the government's proposal view the legal concept of reasonableness as a crucial protection against government overreach, and a key pillar of Israeli democracy."
"In particular," the Times added, "they fear that the current government—an alliance of ultraconservatives and ultranationalists—might use reduced judicial oversight to help mold a more religious and less pluralist society, principally by awarding jobs and funds to pet projects and allies, and firing officials who oppose them."
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Amid Massive Protests, Netanyahu Reportedly Agrees to Delay 'Judicial Coup' Bill
"We are all joining hands to shut down the State of Israel," said the head of Israel's largest trade union federation. "The malls and the factories will close."
Mar 27, 2023
Update:
In the face of massive public backlash, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly agreed to delay his proposed judicial overhaul legislation until at least early May as part of a deal with the far-right party of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Under the deal, according toThe Times of Israel, Netanyahu "agreed that the formation of a civil 'national guard' sought by Ben-Gvir to boost public safety will be approved in the upcoming cabinet meeting."
Ben-Gvir is a right-wing extremist who has previously been convicted of incitement to racism against Arabs and supporting a terrorist organization.
CNNreported that Ben-Gvir "insisted Monday that the judicial overhaul legislation would still come to a vote in parliament’s summer term," which runs from April 30 to July 30.
The far-right national security minister said he had Netanyahu's "commitment that the legislation will be brought to the Knesset for approval in the next session if no agreements are reached during the recess."
Earlier:
Chaos continued to spread across Israel on Monday as flights were grounded, cargo shipments were halted, schools were closed, and mass protests and strikes erupted over far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to overhaul the nation's judicial system, an effort that opponents have decried as a brazen coup attempt.
Netanyahu, who is currently on trial for corruption charges, was reportedly considering whether to delay the legislative push on Monday as opposition intensified, but such a move would risk fracturing his far-right governing coalition—which the judicial overhaul would give more power to choose new judges and override Supreme Court decisions.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right extremist who has called for counterprotests to support the judicial overhaul, said Monday that he will resign if the proposal is put on hold.
As the prime minister weighs his next steps, protests against his plan in the streets and among Israeli officials are expanding.
By Monday afternoon and early evening in Israel, tens of thousands of demonstrators had gathered outside the Knesset to protest the judicial overhaul.
Histadrut, Israel's largest trade union federation, called a historic general strike earlier Monday to build pressure on the Netanyahu government to withdraw the judicial overhaul. As a result, many businesses shut their doors and El Al, Israel's largest airline, announced a halt to all flights departing from Ben Gurion Airport.
"We are all joining hands to shut down the State of Israel," Histadrut chief Arnon Bar-David said during a press conference on Monday. "The malls and the factories will close."
The Financial Timesreported Monday that "Israeli diplomatic staff at overseas embassies have joined strikes to protest against the far-right government's judicial reforms."
In a joint statement on Monday, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten and Stuart Appelbaum—head of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union and president of the Jewish Labor Committee—said that they "strongly back the general strike called by the Israeli trade union federation Histadrut."
"All trade unionists know that it is nothing but an illusion that unions can cooperate with an autocratic government while retaining their independent power," the U.S. union leaders said.
The protests have been building for months, but they erupted with fresh urgency late Sunday after Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant following his comments in support of pausing attempts to ram through the proposed changes.
But the demonstrations,
frequently cast as part of a fight to preserve Israeli "democracy," are rife with underlying tensions and contradictions. As American-Israeli journalist Mairav Zonszein wrote for The Daily Beast last week:
The occupation is inseparable from Israel. The same government that operates Israel's liberal democratic mechanisms presides over millions of stateless Palestinians, who are effectively barred from protesting their condition. The same Supreme Court that struck down a law legalizing Jewish settlement on private Palestinian land has given the green light to Israel's continued transfer of citizens to occupied territory and to the siege on Gaza. That is why the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem defines Israel as an apartheid regime, and why Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have accused Israel of committing the crime of apartheid.
MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan expressed a similar sentiment in a tweet on Sunday, writing: "On the one hand, I'm glad to see so many Israelis protesting their far-right government's attempt to turn Israel into a dictatorship. On the other hand, I wonder where all their protests were over West Bank Palestinians living under an Israeli dictatorship for over 50 years."
During a demonstration in Jerusalem on Monday, police were seen confiscating a protester's lonely Palestinian flag amid a sea of Israeli flags and banners:
The growing demonstrations against Netanyahu's right-wing government have raised concerns about potentially violent attacks from supporters of the judicial overhaul.
Haaretzreported Monday that "right-wing WhatsApp groups and social media are buzzing with calls from activists to demonstrate across Israel in defense of the Netanyahu government's judicial coup, with some activists calling on supporters to take up arms— 'tractors, guns, knives'—and attack anti-government protesters."
"While Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to publicly state whether he intends to halt his government's judicial coup, Likud channels on social media have been calling to demonstrate in support of the judicial overhaul," the Israeli newspaper reported. "The pro-government demonstrations, warning of an attempt to 'steal our elections,' are set to take place in parallel to the anti-coup protests that are already taking place outside the Knesset."
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