Israel Supreme Court strikes down judicial reforms
The Supreme Court of Israel has invalidated a contentious judicial reform that sparked nationwide protests against the Netanyahu government last year.
The reform aimed to curtail the Supreme Court’s authority to overturn unconstitutional laws, a move criticized for potentially undermining the nation’s democratic foundations by weakening the judicial system.
The decision to strike down the law, passed by the government in 2023, comes after months of internal turmoil.
In July, the government enacted the “reasonableness” bill, stripping the Supreme Court and lower courts of their ability to annul government decisions considered “extremely unreasonable.”
This legislation triggered widespread public outrage and division, leading to massive protests and calls for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation.
The Supreme Court’s ruling, with 8 out of 15 judges opposing the law, emphasized that its implementation would have caused “severe and unprecedented damage to the basic characteristics of the State of Israel as a democratic state.”
Israel’s justice minister and architect of the law Yariv Levin criticized the judges for “taking into their hands all the powers” and called their decision to strike it down undemocratic.
But opposition leader Yair Lapid welcomed the verdict, saying on X (formerly Twitter) that the country’s top court had “faithfully fulfilled its role in protecting the citizens of Israel”.
One of the organizers involved in last year’s large-scale protests against the law also welcomed the court’s ruling.
Shikma Bressler said in a video statement that the Supreme Court had removed “the sword of dictatorship from around our necks” for the moment.
The “reasonableness” law was part of a wider series of judicial reforms introduced by the Netanyahu government.
These would have weakened the power of the Supreme Court to review or throw out laws, enabling a simple majority of one in the Knesset (parliament) to overrule such decisions.
The government has also attempted to gain greater power over appointing judges and to scrap the requirement for ministers to obey the advice of their legal advisers.
Mr Netanyahu has argued that the changes are required to redress the balance between the judges and the politicians.
The Supreme Court’s ruling threatens to undermine confidence in his government further. Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party said the decision opposed “the will of the people for unity, especially during wartime”.
Israel’s leadership has been under pressure domestically for its perceived failure in preventing Hamas’s attack on 7 October, and for so far proving unable to rescue all the Israeli hostages who were taken into Gaza.
