Knesset to begin votes on judicial overhaul legislation
Speaking to Channel 13, Levin said the legislation would not be halted "even for a minute".
he Israeli government’s contentious judicial overhaul legislation is swiftly advancing toward its first reading in the Knesset plenum, after Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chair Simcha Rothman announced on Monday that voting on the bill in committee will begin by early next week.
Although opposition members of the committee could delay the advancement of the legislation by several days by submitting reservations, it will likely be voted out of committee and brought for an initial vote in the plenum in the next two weeks. The bill would then be returned to the committee for further preparation before the second and third votes in the plenum to pass it into law.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin on Sunday shrugged off calls to slow the advance of the controversial overhaul, even as President Isaac Herzog joined, for the first time, those saying legislation should be halted in order to allow negotiations for a broadly agreed-upon reform.
Speaking to Channel 13, Levin said the legislation would not be halted “even for a minute”.
Lawmakers will first vote on parts of the legislation that deal with the composition of the judicial selection committee and bar the High Court of Justice from exercising judicial review over Basic Laws.
The other parts of the legislation include the proposals to severely restrict the High Court’s power of judicial review over legislation; allow the Knesset to override a High Court decision to strike down legislation; make legislation immune from judicial review at the beginning of the legislative process; and prevent the court from using the principle of reasonableness to assess administrative decisions by the government and other state agencies.
Opposition members of the committee reacted furiously to Rothman’s announcement. Labor MK Gilad Kariv called for worker strikes and mass protests against the speedy advancement of the legislation. “We are coming to the moment of truth. The coalition of destruction and corruption will bring the legislation on appointing judges to a first reading [in the Knesset plenum] in the coming days,” he tweeted.
“This is the time to go from protests to strikes. In schools, in businesses, at cultural events. This is the time for demonstrations of a million citizens. This is the time for tens of thousands of people to come and demonstrate outside the Knesset on the day of the vote,” Kariv said.
Earlier on Monday, former minister and Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky called on the government and the opposition to accept Herzog’s proposal to freeze the legislative process and set up a forum to come to a compromise agreement. He also reprimanded both sides of the debate for vitriolic rhetoric over the issue, which he said is creating even greater polarisation.
Sharansky criticised one of the major pillars of the proposed reforms – the plan to create a High Court override, whereby the Knesset would be able to re-legislate laws struck down by the court for violating rights laid out in Israel’s Basic Laws with a majority of just 61 MKs.
“Who and how will protect human rights? The claims ‘we were elected, we will protect’ is demagoguery. Democracy is two things simultaneously – majority rule and undeniable rights of the person which any majority cannot deny,” said Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident who was imprisoned for his political views.
Sharansky said for the Knesset to override basic rights with a majority of 61 MKs, the bare minimum for a governing coalition, would be an “absurdity”.
“The Knesset must have the last word on political decisions. And the court on decisions related to human rights,” Sharansky said.
TIMES OF ISRAEL
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