Israel: Knesset Adopts a Highly Contested Reform

Israel is a deeply divided country with an institutional clash that, despite the united majority vote, seems far from over. This is more or less a summary of the political situation in Israel in the aftermath of the Knesset’s approval of the first piece of the controversial justice reform desired by the government, bringing together the Likud, religious parties, and nationalist extreme-right movements.

The 29 weeks of street demonstrations and the concerns expressed by President Isaac Herzog, Washington, and many Jewish communities in the diaspora who have repeatedly called for  compromise, have not prevented Benyamin Netanyahu from going for a full-on confrontation. He had the so-called “reasonable law” passed with 64 out of 120 votes.

All the opposition left the hall in protest without voting. It is a divide that even several Israeli newspapers highlighted by publishing on July 25 a large black font page and the headline: “A black day for democracy.”

The measure limits the Supreme Court’s ability to intervene in laws passed by the Knesset. The question is very delicate because, due to the fierce opposition of religious parties who do not want to oppose the Torah, Israel has never adopted a constitution. The country has only 13 Basic Laws, approved by qualified majorities in the Israeli Parliament.

These norms dictate the electoral rules, the institutional organization, and certain fundamental principles to which every law must conform; but these are very limited areas. That is why, on several occasions, the Supreme Court has referred to the principle of “reasonableness” to stop rules which, although not contrary to any of the Basic Laws, were considered by judges to be contrary to the most elementary rules of fairness and justice.

Thus, in the past, parties of the nationalist right have repeatedly found in the Supreme Court at least a barrier to proposals that are overtly racist or harmful to the rights recognized to Palestinians by other provisions of the Israeli legal system.

For this reason, the Knesset, under pressure from these parties, established by ordinary law (without the qualified majority required for a new Basic Law) that judges will no longer be able to invoke the criterion of “reasonableness” to reject laws voted in Parliament. However, the game is far from over.

Upon passage of the law, an association of jurists – the Movement for Government Quality in Israel – filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to intervene against the new law. The president of the highest court, Esther Hayut, who was in Germany, immediately returned to Israel, announcing that the appeal will be examined as soon as possible.

It is therefore very likely that the Court will rule against the “law on reasonableness” in the coming days, thus officially opening the conflict between the judiciary and the legislative power.

Another burning issue also remains on the table: the position of the state attorney general, Galia Baharav-Miara, who openly opposes the justice policy of the Netanyahu government. She certainly will not defend the new law before the Supreme Court. The executive could then invoke the law that has just been passed to assume the power to reject the judgment of the High Court, resulting in a major crisis between the powers of the Israeli system.