Tens of thousands of Israelis from around the country demonstrated outside the Knesset a day after Israel’s President Isaac Herzog pleaded with his countrymen on prime-time television not to let the issue of judicial reform destroy the country.
“We came to demonstrate against the very aggressive legislation, which is going to turn israel from a liberal democracy into a fascist dictatorship,” said one protestor, Eliad Shraga, Chairman of The Movement for Quality Government.
Inside the Knesset, lawmakers introduced judicial reform legislation, which includes limiting Supreme Court power to overrule legislation and giving lawmakers more power over appointing judges.
“I feel, we all feel, that we are in a moment before a collision, even a violent collision, a barrel of explosives before a blast,” Herzog told his countrymen.
“The judiciary must be a home for the diversity of opinions in Israeli society. The fact that there is not enough diversity, for example there are no judges of eastern origin in the Supreme Court, bothers me a lot,” Herzog said.
Herzog says the call for reforms is a product of imbalance between authorities and making decisions that culminated in the 2005 Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria.
Known as the Disengagement, it forced some 9,000 Israelis to leave their homes in communities that had been backed by the government for years. The communities were bulldozed ostensibly for the sake of peace.
“This pain of our brothers and sisters is real, to reject it and ignore it is a big mistake,” Herzog said.
Many opponents of the Judicial reforms argue that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could use the changes to stop the corruption trial against him. Others fear it might lead to religious law being imposed here.
“The reason that there’s mistrust is because the Minister of Justice himself said that this reform was a four-story building reform and what we are seeing now is only the first floor,” said Adv. Yehuda Shaffer, from the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel.
“For the people of Israel, the population here, there’s lack of transparency as to what the government is planning,” Shaffer told journalists at a briefing sponsored by Media Central.
Shaffer argues that the Israeli political system has no checks and balances except elections and the Supreme Court.
“We don’t have a constitution. We don’t have two houses of parliament,” he explained. “All the basic rights in Israel like freedom of expression, freedom of the press and many others are written nowhere and have been created by the court in common law.”
Simcha Rothman who heads the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, however, claims the Supreme Court has overstepped its boundaries.
“The court is biased. The court is canceling legislation by the Knesset for political reasons and does not defend human rights. For all those reasons we need to reform the courts,” Rothman told CBN News.
Rothman sees the changes as positive for all of Israel from the economy to the fight against terrorism.
“People will elect their representative and their representative will push forward the policies that they’re elected to do,” he said. “A lot of changes, but the main issue is Israel will be [a] democratic, self-governed country.”
Rothman also downplayed the fears of the opposition saying that most of the claims he’d encountered were “based on misinformation or on fake news.”
Herzog says he met with many on both sides of the issue.
“I state with certainty: it is possible to reach a broad consensus, which will put the citizens of Israel above all debate. Yes – it is possible!” he said.
While Herzog is calling on the government to stop the legislation, Netanyahu’s coalition has moved ahead while saying they are still open to dialogue with the left.
Opposition leader, Yair Lapid, Knesset Member Benny Gantz, and Rothman all held separate meetings with Herzog on Tuesday. But the battle continues.
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at CBN
