Israel’s parliament has voted on a core element of Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reform for the first time. The draft law on the so-called “appropriateness clause” was approved by the Knesset in the first reading on Tuesday night. After hours of debate, 64 out of 120 MEPs voted in favor and 56 voted against. Two more readings are needed before the change comes into effect. The law envisages removing the country’s highest court from the possibility of objecting to government decisions as “inappropriate” and thus blocking them.
According to his own statements, Prime Minister Netanyahu wants to curtail arbitrary and political influence of the judges with the law. Critics, on the other hand, see the government’s plans as an attack on Israeli democracy and have announced a day of large-scale and “disruptive” protests for Tuesday. The members of the government acted “like thieves in the night”, tweeted opposition leader Jair Lapid after the vote and also announced: “The fight is not over yet. We will never give up the values of the State of Israel. Millions of Israelis will tomorrow with the Israeli flag take to the streets.”
There were weeks of protests across Israel in the spring against Netanyahu’s planned judicial reform. Even soldiers from elite Israeli units have taken part in strikes, calling on the government to desist from its plans. Netanyahu then postponed the vote until the summer. The protests continued anyway; in Tel Aviv people have been taking to the streets for 27 weeks now. Critics accuse Israel’s government of wanting to undermine the rule of law for its own benefit. There was sharp criticism, in particular, of the “appropriateness clause”, which curtails the separation of powers and the control function of the supreme court.
The law has not yet been passed
With the approval in the first reading, the law has not yet been passed. It now goes to the Knesset Judiciary Committee before being submitted to Parliament for second and third readings. If the governing coalition has its way, which has a comfortable majority in parliament, the law should be finally passed before the start of the summer break on July 31.
The day of the vote in Israel was marked by tense mood and loud criticism. Like the newspaper Times of Israel reported, the Knesset closed its spectator gallery before the vote to rule out possible protests during the vote and had protesters removed from the building by the security service. US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said “things are off track” in the country. He appealed to Netanyahu not to implement his plan until he had gained broader support from the population. Israeli President Izchak Herzog called the situation a “deep and worrying crisis” on Monday and called on the government to renegotiate the reform with the opposition.
Opposition leader Jair Lapid of the Future Party and opposition politician Benny Gantz of the National Unity party castigated the bill in the Knesset debate on Monday evening with harsh words. “This snowball that’s rolling today will grow, gain momentum and destroy the whole country if we don’t stop it,” Gantz said in parliament. Lapid called the bill “madness.”
At the same time, the opposition parties signaled that they would be prepared to return to the negotiating table even after the law had been approved in the first reading. As the Times of Israel reported, Netanyahu does not want to respond to the offers of talks and wants to pass the law as planned before the summer break.