Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video interview with american daily wall street journal and aired Thursday, April 29, waiving a key provision of his controversial judicial reform that sparked one of the biggest protest movements in Israel’s history. “The idea of an override clause that allows parliament, the Knesset, to overrule Supreme Court decisions by a simple majority, I said it, I dropped it”he said.
Mr Netanyahu, who announced a pause in the project at the end of March to allow discussions with the opposition, said he had abandoned the so-called clause “derogatory”, which was to allow Parliament to overrule a Supreme Court decision by a simple majority. This provision, highly decried, had been adopted in first reading by the Parliament in March.
The Prime Minister, whose government is one of the most right-wing in the country’s history, also claimed in this interview to have sought “broad consensus” with the opposition which, according to him, was subject to too many “political pressure” to accept a compromise.
protest in the street
The two main opposition leaders, Yaïr Lapid and Benny Gantz, announced on June 14 that they were suspending their participation in the negotiations on the reform. Mr. Lapid then accused Mr. Netanyahu “to make believe that he was open to discussion”.
Critics of the judicial reform, who have taken to the streets of the country every week since its announcement in January, believe that it risks opening the way to an illiberal or authoritarian drift. The government ensures for its part that it aims to rebalance the powers by reducing the prerogatives of the Supreme Court, considered politicized, for the benefit of Parliament.
Another highly contested provision of the reform, which changes the process for appointing judges, was also passed by MPs at first reading. In this regard, Mr. Netanyahu told the wall street journal : “It will not be the current structure, but it will not be the original structure either”without providing more details on whether or not to maintain the provision.
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