The Supreme Court of Israel began analyzing this Tuesday (12) eight appeals presented by the parliamentary opposition against the judicial reform proposed by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The first part of the text, approved in July by the pro-government majority Parliament, limits the role of the Judiciary in government decisions. Before the new law, the “principle of reasonableness” exercised by magistrates allowed the Court to review and revoke government decisions.
On that occasion, parliamentarians opposing the government left the plenary as soon as voting began.
After 13 hours of hearing, the 15 judges who form the judging panel did not conclude the trial and gave the government 21 days to present arguments about the continuity of the judicial reform process.
Israel’s justice minister, Yariv Levin, said the judiciary’s interference in the approval of the reform is “a fatal blow to democracy and the status of the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament).”
One of the points examined in the opposition’s requests, led by parliamentarian Yair Lapid, is the “freezing” of the project for 18 months, until there is a political consensus on the new legislation in negotiations with the government, an issue that was rejected by the creators.
wave of protests
Since the beginning of the year, when the government announced the proposal, thousands of protesters have gathered across the country against the project. At the end of July, more than 200,000 people took to the streets of Tel Aviv, the epicenter of the protests.
The day before the trial this Tuesday (12), protesters again gathered on the streets of Jerusalem against the approval of the law, with the country’s flags and posters in favor of democracy.
Hours before the trial, political activists sympathetic to the government gathered around the Court’s headquarters, in defense of the prime minister, stating that they voted for him and not for the chief judge of the Court of Justice, Esther Hayut, according to the agency’s report. AFP.
Israel is a country that does not have a federal constitution, but some rules that govern the functioning of the State, such as the Basic Law, a legislative tool used to guide the limitations and activities of each government body.
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