Protests set to erupt as courts overhaul proceeds
Organisers of the protests have said that now that the government has begun moving ahead in the Knesset with certain elements of the plan, they will renew their efforts.
(Times of Israel) – Protest leaders this week vowed to step up their mass demonstrations against the Israeli government, including staging a blockade of the Ben Gurion Airport next week.
While protesters somewhat lowered the flames over the past few months while the judicial overhaul legislation was paused for what seems to have been ill-fated negotiations, organisers said that now that the government has begun moving ahead in the Knesset with certain elements of the plan, they will renew their efforts.
At a press conference on Tuesday, prominent protest leaders said they plan to blockade the Ben Gurion Airport on Monday, and will weigh other actions moving forward. Shikma Bressler, one of the organisers, said that mass national “days of disruptions” previously held weekly could now become daily events.
“We promise those who are destroying the country – [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and [Justice Minister Yariv] Levin – there will be surprises. All the groups participating in the struggle will carry out resistance actions according to their judgement,” Bressler said.
The protester leaders’ announcement came hours after a raucous demonstration was held outside Levin’s home in Modi’in. Police arrested six of the protesters after they burned tyres, scuffled with officers and attempted to block the road. Officers used pepper spray to clear the protesters and video showed police attempting to forcibly remove demonstrators who were sitting in the street.
Also on Tuesday, hundreds of reservists in an elite Air Force unit signed a letter warning that they will refuse to volunteer for duty if the judicial overhaul goes ahead.
Last Saturday, tens of thousands of Israelis took part in rallies for the 25th week of protests against the government’s plans to overhaul the system.
Some 100,000 people demonstrated in Tel Aviv, while smaller rallies were held in other cities and locations.
Netanyahu’s coalition reignited its judicial shakeup this week by attacking the reasonableness clause, relying on insights gleaned from negotiations with opposition representatives to calculate that constraining judicial review in this manner would receive the least objection.
However, rather than merely tighten the conditions under which courts could evaluate the reasonableness of a government decision, the coalition presented a broad proposal to completely remove court oversight over a range of decisions made by potentially any elected official.
The Attorney-General’s Office on Monday slammed the plan to completely outlaw judicial review over the “reasonableness” of elected official decisions as a “very extreme measure” that “seriously harms basic democratic values”.
Gil Limon, deputy attorney-general for administrative affairs, told the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee that “reasonableness” is the primary public sector tool to provide transparency and accountability for government decision-making, and without it, “arbitrary decisions” can be “inoculated” against scrutiny.
“What stands before us is a green light to the government, the prime minister, ministers and other elected officials – and to them only – to make arbitrary decisions that ignore relevant facts, necessary considerations, or give extremely exaggerated weight to the importance of negligible considerations,” Limon charged.
“It is our opinion that this bill, if passed, will void an important protection that guarantees that the government will act fairly and without arbitrariness toward individuals. It will seriously damage basic democratic values, like proper managerial behaviour, the purity of the morals of public service, the rule of law and public trust.”
Meanwhile, the Knesset is set to elect its final representative to sit on the Judicial Selection Committee on July 12, with Yitzhak Kroizer of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party expected to join Yesh Atid’s Karine Elharrar on the panel.
Elharrar was the sole lawmaker chosen earlier this month, in an upset vote that highlighted discord within Netanyahu’s Likud party.
Opposition politicians have demanded that the coalition convene the committee immediately, as one of their conditions for resuming compromise negotiations on reforming the judiciary.
Many in the opposition believe Levin has no intention of convening the panel at all. He has publicly decried the current judicial appointment method – which forces power sharing between political and professional representatives – as “invalid” for a democracy.
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