Jerusalem (BLAZETRENDS).- The Knesset (Israeli Parliament) will vote today in first reading a bill that annuls the doctrine of reasonableness, which allows the Supreme Court to revoke government decisions based on whether they are reasonable or not, one of the pillars of the controversial judicial reform promoted by the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
The government bloc in the Knesset, which has a large majority, is accelerating the processing of this law and hopes that the bill is definitively approved in three votes – the second and third are usually held on the same day – before the closing of the parliamentary session for summer vacations, next July 30.
called protests
However, the protest movement has called for a new “day of anger” for tomorrow with roadblocks, the occupation of Ben Gurion International Airport, and massive demonstrations in the afternoon throughout the country, with Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Avenue and the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem, as main points.
The BIG department store chain and a dozen high-tech companies will close tomorrow, while the opposition has asked the country’s largest union, Histadrut, to call a general strike, as they did in March, when Netanyahu managed to temporarily freeze the processing of the reform.
At the end of March, when the streets caught fire because Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for openly calling for a halt to judicial reform, Hisradrut called a general strike that forced the prime minister to freeze the processing of that legislation and open a dialogue. with the opposition, which broke up last month when the government expressed its intention to go ahead unilaterally with the plan.
Eliminating the doctrine of reasonableness is one of the central elements of the judicial reform, which seeks to undermine the independence of justice and the separation of powers, a threat to Israeli democracy, according to its detractors, which have raised a broad social response since multiple sectors.
First reading of the bill
If the bill is approved this afternoon in its first reading – the discussions can last until dawn – the president of the parliamentary committee for Justice and Law, the far-right Simcha Rothman, will meet the members of the committee tomorrow, to begin the preparations for the second and last reading vote.
The hardline government and its supporters justify this law by arguing that the Supreme Court judges have meddled too much in political decisions, such as last January, when they annulled the leader’s appointment as Minister of the Interior and Justice based on the doctrine of reasonableness. ultra-Orthodox Aryeh Deri, who last year was disbarred after entering a plea agreement to avoid prison convicted of corruption.
Opposition criticism
The opposition has criticized the measure and has been in favor of limiting reasonableness so that judges cannot review the basic laws – a kind of Constitution for Israel – but the government has not shown itself willing to budge and this bill is now his priority to advance judicial reform.
Although some jurists defend that the current doctrine of reasonableness is excessive because it gives judges total immunity from political scrutiny; its complete annulment “opens the door to complete arbitrariness in decision-making,” warned Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, one of the biggest critics of the judicial reform.