MADRID, July 4 (.) –
A commission of the Israeli Parliament has given the green light this Tuesday to a law that limits the margin of the judicial system to overthrow decisions adopted by the Government, one of the most controversial aspects of the reform promoted by the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu and that has generated in these last few months a virtually constant wave of protests.
The Parliamentary Justice Commission, dominated by the parties that support Netanyahu, has voted in favor of a text that establishes a “reasonableness” criterion when the Supreme Court can question laws. It is expected that it will be submitted for debate in plenary next week, although three votes will be necessary.
Netanyahu already announced in mid-June that he would go ahead unilaterally with the judicial reform given the supposed lack of will of the opposition to reach some kind of understanding. Critics of the judicial reform argue that it is an attack on Israel’s balance of powers, fundamentally on the foundations on which democracy is based, since it gives Parliament unusual influence to overturn judicial decisions.
Opposition deputies have cried out on Tuesday against what they consider “an illegal vote”, even pointing out that “this is how a dictator behaves”, according to the newspaper ‘Times of Israel’. The two main opposition leaders, Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, have signed a joint communiqué deploring Netanyahu’s “unilateral” decision, which “breaks the nation.”
In this sense, and despite the breakdown of the talks, Lapid and Gantz continue to see room to reach agreements, since they understand that the judicial system can be improved but cannot remain at the service of “the tyranny of the majority” and ” corrupt designations”. “The law does not serve to protect citizens, but politicians,” they have criticized.
