“The legal system of balance threatens to disappear”

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s new far-right government in Israel wants to implement legal reforms that worry many Israelis. For the second week in a row, thousands of people took to the streets of Tel Aviv to demonstrate against the plans.

The new government is the most right-wing and conservative the country has ever had. This week, Attorney General Levin outlined plans to drastically reduce the Supreme Court’s power over the justice system. At the same time, the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, would gain much more power.

Israel’s Supreme Court can now intervene if, for example, the government proposes a law that violates so-called “fundamental rights”. These laws guarantee fundamental rights, such as the right to equality and the rights of minorities.

Minister Levin wants to get rid of it because the Supreme Court would have too much power. According to him, the court interfered too much with the decisions of the cabinet and the legislation of the parliament. It is precisely this, argues the Minister, that it is not good for democracy. “Time and time again people go to the polls, but again and again it is people who are not elected by the people who make the decisions. »

The Supreme Court should no longer be allowed to intervene if there is a majority in parliament in favor of a law, whether or not the new law is contrary to existing basic laws. In addition, the minister wants to have better control over the appointment of judges who end up in court. According to critics, the court loses its political independence.

Amir Fuchs, a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem, talks about a change at the heart of Israeli governance. “The essence of the plan is to remove the only check and balance we have in our legal system. We already don’t have much control here in that regard. For example, we don’t have a Senate. So our Supreme Court is the only institution that here for this control and this balance can provide.”

Critics are particularly concerned about minorities in the country, such as Palestinians and people from the LGBTI community. According to Fuchs, this concern is justified.

“The Israeli minister’s plan is similar to what we saw in Hungary, Poland and Turkey,” he said. “The government takes control of the Supreme Court and there is no more control. A majority in parliament can then in principle do whatever it wants, even if it goes against minority rights, for example .”

Plans that run counter to minority rights are already underway. For example, the government wants to allow entrepreneurs to refuse customers because of their lifestyle, if it goes against their beliefs. For example, a hotel owner would be allowed to refuse a homosexual couple.

In Tel Aviv, dozens of activists take to the streets every day to protest against this plan. One of them is Heli:

Concerns about reforms are not about government legitimacy, Fuchs points out. “He was elected by a democratic majority.” But there also appears to be a majority of the population against these plans, he says. “For a lot of people, when they voted it wasn’t clear this reform was going to happen, so they’re now taking to the streets to make their voices heard again.”

It remains to be seen how many people will be standing today and how many opponents of the reforms there will be. But it is clear that there is a lot of resistance.