It is the most extreme and nationalist Israeli government ever, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who planning to change how much power the courts in the country have.
The prime minister is in his sixth round as the country’s supreme leader, and in the background lurks a corruption indictment against him.
Netanyahu’s newly appointed Justice Minister, Yariv Levin, has been put in charge of the government’s plan to limit the judiciary by what they call sweeping changes to it.
Among other things, the plan involves restrictions on rulings from the Supreme Court against the government’s policies or laws passed by the national assembly, the Knesset. But it will also give politicians greater influence over which judges are elected, writes NTB.
– It is intended to be a death blow to the independence of the courts and turn them into a silent institution, said Israel’s Justice Ester Hayut on Thursday.
RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CHANGES: Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin (tv) together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset in December. Photo: Gil COHEN-MAGEN / AFP
Several of Israel’s largest leading newspapers have criticized the plan in strong terms, including Times of Israel who writes:
– Here comes the new regime in Israel: Benjamin Netanyahu’s democratic dictatorship.
Senior lecturer in Middle Eastern studies Dag Henrik Tuastad at the University of Oslo (UiO) agrees that the planned changes will lead Israel away from democratic principles.
– It looks like the principle of the distribution of power is being shaken, and potentially it is threatening to democracy, he says to TV 2 and continues:
– It is because a government with a majority in parliament can set aside Supreme Court decisions, and then the judiciary will no longer be the ones controlling the government. Then the whole principle of distribution of power breaks down.
FIRST LECTURER: Dag Henrik Tuastad at the University of Oslo.
– How serious is this?
– If it goes through, Israel can no longer call itself a democracy.
– The reason why it smells particularly bad is that the Prime Minister is under investigation for corruption. To be able to set aside basic laws – that everyone has equal rights – could lead to the Supreme Court no longer being able to control the government.
The reforms may help Netanyahu, who is thus charged with corruption, avoid conviction, or even make the trial against him disappear, writes NTB.
Since he was indicted in 2019, the prime minister has criticized the judiciary, calling it biased against him.
– Very serious
Israel has no constitution, but 13 so-called basic laws, or fundamental laws in Norwegian. At the moment, the Israeli Supreme Court can review government legislation if it contradicts one of these fundamental laws, writes the online newspaper Middle East Eye.
Justice Minister Levin, however, wants to introduce a review clause which will allow members of the National Assembly, with a simple majority, to reintroduce a law that has been disqualified by the Supreme Court.
TV 2 has also asked Hilde Henriksen Waage, who is professor of history at UiO and has the Middle East as one of her special fields, how serious it is that this could now happen.
– Very seriously, she replies matter-of-factly and continues:
– The combined front of lawyers, judges and government lawyers believes that this will destroy Israel’s entire legal system, which will then become highly politicized. The reason it is very serious is that the new government is the most extreme, fascist and discriminatory government Israel has ever had.
PROFESSOR: Hilde Henriksen Waage in history at the University of Oslo. Photo: TV 2
Fears big changes on the West Bank
She points to a possible horse-trading between Netanyahu and his extreme coalition partners in the government as the background for the possible changes:
– Among other things, the extreme party Jödisk Makt wants Prime Minister Netanyahu to be given immunity. He has very serious corruption charges leveled against him, and that meant he had the choice between going to jail or becoming prime minister.
– As a reward for this effort, Jødisk Makt, which has been given the security minister and the finance minister, will be able to demand major changes in Israel’s policy in the occupied West Bank, says Waage.
MAY LOSE POWER: The Israeli Supreme Court convened in January during a hearing on a complaint against the appointment of Interior and Health Minister Aryeh Deri. Photo: Ronen Zvulun / Reuters
She highlights several examples of such changes, including that the party will allow Israeli soldiers who kill Palestinians in the West Bank to avoid prison sentences and receive immunity and that Israelis can freely settle in the occupied West Bank.
– There is also a fear that the finance minister will dissolve or destroy the structure that has been created for a future Palestinian state and the cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli authorities, she says and adds:
– All queers are also terrified of the announced laws, which will weaken their rights.
Politician: Warns of civil war
UiO colleague Tuastad says that it is possible that parts of the government will now also try to do something about the status of the original Palestinians in the country who did not become refugees when the state of Israel was established after the Second World War.
They correspond to around 1.6 million people and make up about 20 percent of the population within Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
After Justice Minister Levin presented the plans, there have already been demonstrations against the plan and the government. Several large demonstrations against the government are expected on Saturday.
DEMONSTRATING: Private Israeli lawyers protested Thursday in Tel Aviv against the Netanyahu government’s reform of the judiciary. Photo: Corinna Kern / Reuters
DEMONSTRATION: In Tel Aviv, many demonstrated against the far-right government of Netanyahu on Saturday 7 January. Photo: AMIR COHEN
The former defense minister Benny Gantz, who now leads the opposition party National Unity Party, goes to great lengths in his criticism of his former government partner Netanyahu, writes the newspaper Haaretz.
– If you continue the way you are going, the responsibility for civil war, which is brewing in Israeli society, will lie with you, said Gantz.
While the largest opposition politician Yair Lapid in Yesh Atid has said he will fight the proposals and “cancel them when we return to power”, writes Reuters.
– Danger on the way
Neither Waage nor Tuastad believes that there is an imminent danger of civil war. Rather, they point to the level of conflict between Palestinian Israelis and Jewish Israelis.
– You saw in 2021, when there was a dispute over Jerusalem, that the Palestinians in Israel began to demonstrate. Then there were bigger riots and fires in mixed cities, between Israeli Palestinians and Israelis. There you have the greatest potential for conflict, and if there is a link between this and rebellion in the West Bank, then there is danger on the way, says Tuastad.
Waage responds as follows to questions about whether there is a possibility of civil war:
– I am a historian and not a fortune teller, but there is cause for great concern, civil war or no civil war. There is cause for great concern for Israeli society, internally among the Israelis, but also for the threat they feel from the Palestinians living in Israel.
