Israel’s new government unveils plan to weaken Supreme Court
The justice minister of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has presented a plan to reform the legal system and undermine the Supreme Court.
The plan unveiled on Wednesday, according to critics, will upend Israel’s system of checks and balances and undermine democratic institutions by granting unlimited power to the most right-wing coalition in Israeli history, upending Israel’s system of checks and balances and democratic institutions.
A day before the justices are scheduled to discuss a contentious new law that permits a politician convicted of tax offenses to serve as a Cabinet minister on Thursday, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a steadfast critic of the Supreme Court, unveiled his proposal.
Regarding his proposal to restructure the court, Levin said, “The time to act has come.
His recommendations include for a number of significant changes intended to limit the authority of Israel’s high court, including permitting legislatures to approve laws that the court has essentially declared unconstitutional and knocked down.
Levin proposed a measure allowing the 120-seat Knesset, the national legislature, to overrule Supreme Court rulings with a simple majority of 61 votes. In addition, he suggested that politicians be more involved in the selection of Supreme Court judges and that ministries choose their own legal counsel rather than hiring outside consultants.
Israeli settlements on privately owned Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank are prohibited under Supreme Court rulings, according to Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox and ultranationalist friends. They would also aim to formalize the exclusion of the ultra-Orthodox from the nation’s conscription into the military and permit the prolonged detention of African asylum seekers.
Levin claimed that the public’s confidence in the legal system has reached an all-time low and that he intends to return the authority that currently rests in the hands of elected officials to what he and his supporters view as excessively intrusive judges.
