The Israeli Supreme Court overturns Netanyahu's judicial reform that caused massive marches before the war

Until last October 7 – the day Hamas attacked Israel, causing 1,200 deaths without its intelligence services detecting what was happening in its backyard – the main political issue on the Israeli agenda was the judicial reform approved on last July by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the support of his ultra-Orthodox and far-right partners. This Monday, the Supreme Court overturned that law that sought to prevent its judges from paralyzing Government decisions because they were considered unreasonable.

The resolution, which had already been leaked to the media on Wednesday, deals a new blow to Netanyahu in his lowest hours. The latest polls show that social support has collapsed – his party, the Likud, would now obtain half of the deputies it has today in the Knesset – due to the unpopularity of this reform, now annulled, and the failure to avoid the massacre that unleashed the war.

The reform, which caused massive demonstrations throughout the country for 30 weeks, removes from the Supreme Court the ability to annul those decisions of the Government, ministers or elected public officials that it considers unreasonable. This is one of the legal filters held by the high court in a country without a Constitution (it is guided by a series of basic laws developed over the years) and in which Parliament elects the prime minister.

The opposition perceives the Supreme Court as the guarantor of the separation of powers and the rule of law while the right sees it as an ideological and interventionist body. The approval, on July 24, occurred thanks to the votes of Netanyahu's coalition (the right-wing Likud and the ultra-Orthodox and ultra-nationalists), while the entire opposition was absent from Parliament. After his vote, Washington considered the new legislation “unfortunate.”

The judicial decision opens a new front for the prime minister. The Supreme Court ruling was not easy. Its importance is reflected in the fact that it is the first time since the creation of the body, with the founding of the country in 1948, that it has been adopted by the 15 magistrates that comprise it. The sentence, as the leak anticipated, has gone ahead with the votes in favor of eight of them. Its deliberations have taken place amid more or less veiled attacks from the Government and other officials, who considered that the court did not have the power to overturn the norm, and massive demonstrations by detractors who called for its revocation. The reform had caused unprecedented polarization in Israeli society.

The Quality of Government Movement in Israel, the main promoter of the protests, has already shown its satisfaction with the resolution. “It is a historic day and a tremendous victory for those who defend democracy,” said that organization in a statement. “A Government and ministers who sought to escape judicial control have known that there are judges in Jerusalem, that there is democracy, that there is separation of powers.” For his part, the movement's director, Eliad Shraga, added: “The enormous public campaign and brave opposition to these very dangerous laws and the protests and petitions before the Supreme Court show the tremendous public power we have in our hands. We looked corruption in the eyes and he lowered his gaze. We thank the court for this important decision. “We will continue to do what is necessary to fix the country and preserve democracy.”

Government anger

The anger in the Government was conveyed by the Minister of Justice, Yariv Levin, who accused the magistrates of “arrogating all powers to themselves.” “The judges have taken into their hands all the powers of the State, which in a democratic system are distributed in a balanced manner between the three powers,” said Levin, considered the architect of the reform. “The Supreme Court has taken away the voice of millions of citizens,” he added. Netanyahu assured that if they overturned the rule, he would not abide by the resolution, which would cause a constitutional crisis unprecedented in the country's history. The Likud has noted that the decision is unfortunate and that it opposes “the people's desire for unity, especially during war.”

It remains to be seen how the prime minister copes with the setback, but the truth is that the new coup comes at his worst moment of popularity, whose fall has increased with the Hamas attacks on October 7 that, despite having one of the most powerful intelligence services in the world, the Netanyahu Government did not know how to avoid. The latest poll, from a series of surveys carried out in recent months, and published by the newspaper Maariv Last Thursday, it gave it 17 seats if the elections were held today compared to the 32 it currently has. These polls give the winner to Benny Gantz's also conservative National Unity Party, currently integrated into the emergency government that Netanyahu formed to wage war. The next elections are scheduled for 2026.

The sentence has a full impact on the war cabinet. Several of its members, all of them from Gantz's electoral list – Gadi Eisenkot and Gideon Saar – are among those who were absent from the vote last July. Yoav Gallant, the Likud Minister of Defense, publicly called for the reform to be withdrawn for reasons of national security, so the prime minister threatened to dismiss him.

In front of them, the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionist Party, and Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the Interior and head of the ultranationalists of Otsmá Yehudit, defend the reform. These last two are also among those who want, after the conflict, Israel to take control of Gaza and once again build settler settlements in the Strip. This same Sunday, Ben Gvir asked to go even further by requesting the approval of a national emigration law to expel Palestinians from the currently besieged territory and send them to third countries. US President Joe Biden has asked Netanyahu to break his coalition with these two parties.

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