Israel’s parliament gave final approval on Monday, July 24th, to a controversial amendment that would limit the power of the judiciary. With protests taking place all over the country throughout the evening, the threat of large-scale strikes looms large.
Israeli media report that the amendment, which would take away some of the Supreme Court’s powers to annul decisions made by the executive if it deems them “unreasonable” and would grant the government more power in electing chief justices, passed by a 64-to-zero vote after opposition lawmakers left the session, as some of them shouted: “For shame!”
Israel’s Supreme Court is considered a major countervailing force in the country, which has no constitution and a one-chamber parliament.
While the voting was already in progress, Israeli President Isaac Herzog made a last-ditch attempt to find a compromise between supporters and opponents, but his efforts were in vain.
Before the vote, opposition leader Yair Lapid claimed that there were parliamentarians within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition who thought the law went too far, and spoke of a “hostile takeover of the Israeli majority by an extremist minority.”
The 73-year-old Netanyahu, who was fitted with a pacemaker last Saturday night, was released from the hospital on Monday, just in time to attend the vote. The vote was finally able to take place after a 26-hour filibuster by opposition members.
Netanyahu claims the amendment, a key element of a larger judicial reform, would give more people to the people since, through it, his reasoning goes, unelected judges cannot stop what elected representatives have decided on.
Opponents fear it would however allow the government to push through far-reaching legislation, which they say could negatively affect minorities and women.
Critics also point to another consequence, that of the Supreme Court no longer being able to intervene in who is appointed to high office.
Earlier this year, the court blocked the appointment of Aryeh Deri as minister because he had been thrice convicted of tax evasion. After the change in law, the road could be cleared for Deri, a loyal ally of Netanyahu, for a return to high office.
Before the vote, outside the parliament building, the Knesset, hundreds of protesters were already blocking the entrance, forcing police to deploy a water cannon to disperse the crowd. Several arrests were made.
Following the vote, by evening, thousands had taken to the streets across the country, blocking highways while resisting efforts by police to remove them. Israeli police have confirmed that at least 19 arrests have been made.
Besides mass protests to contend with, Israel faces a real risk of its public sector being crippled. Later in the day, Arnon Bar-David, head of Israel’s main public sector union, said he would meet with other union officials to discuss the possibility of declaring a “general labor dispute in the economy,” which they would activate “if necessary until a complete shutdown is achieved.”
“From this moment on, any unilateral progress in the reform will have serious consequences … Either things will progress with broad agreement or they will not progress at all,” he said.
For nearly 30 weeks Israelis had been protesting against the planned reforms. In March, they were even successful in forcing Netanyahu to postpone the vote.
Last weekend, hundreds of thousands of opponents to the amendment (a record number) took to the streets in major Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
In addition, over a hundred former chiefs of Israel’s security services went on to express support for another thousands of reservists, including fighter pilots, and members of the intelligence, cyber, and special operations units in the IDF, who threatened to quit over the amendment.
Within Israel, there are also fears that its enemies, including Iran and the militant group Hezbollah, might take advantage of the country’s precarious domestic situation.
For this reason, earlier on Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden implored Netanyahu (traditionally a strong regional ally of the U.S.) to postpone the vote on the bill.
According to the U.S. leader, it looked “like the current judicial reform proposal is becoming more divisive, not less.”
“Given the range of threats and challenges confronting Israel right now,” Biden added, “it doesn’t make sense for Israeli leaders to rush this—the focus should be on pulling people together and finding consensus.”
The opposition meanwhile shows no sign of giving up, as opposition leader Yair Lapid said: “This government can win the battle, but not the war.”
