Netanyahu passes the first reform, the battle goes to the Supreme Court

Ignoring 29 weeks of street protests, the Israeli right has passed the “law of reasonableness” to limit the Supreme Court’s room for maneuver. Now, however, it will discuss the appeals filed precisely against that provision, formally opening, in all probability, the clash of powers, in a country that lacks a Constitution. Black front pages in Israeli newspapers.

Tel Aviv () – A deeply divided country. With an institutional clash that – despite the solid vote of the majority that supports Netanyahu – promises to be far from over. This is how we can summarize the political situation in Israel after the approval in the Knesset of the first important law of the controversial justice reform promoted by the Likud coalition government with religious parties and extreme right-wing nationalist movements.

Despite 29 weeks of street demonstrations (which continued last night with police repression) and concerns expressed by President Isaac Herzog, Washington and many Diaspora Jewish communities, who have repeatedly called for compromise, Netanyahu (recovering from bypass surgery) has chosen to face the test of strength in the courtroom. Yesterday afternoon the so-called “law of reasonableness” was approved with 64 votes in favor out of 120 (those of the majority) and all the oppositions left the classroom without voting, in protest. A failure that several Israeli newspapers have wanted to highlight by publishing today a large black image on the front page, with the headline “A black day for democracy.”

The measure adopted directly affects the balance between the powers of the State, limiting the possibility of intervention of the Supreme Court on the laws approved by the Knesset. The matter is very delicate because -due to the fierce opposition of the religious parties, which do not want to contradict the Torah- Israel has never adopted its own Constitution. It only has 13 Basic Laws, norms approved by qualified majorities in the Israeli Parliament that dictate the electoral rules, the institutional structure and some fundamental principles that all ordinary law must abide by. But these are very restricted areas and that is why the Supreme Court has made reference on several occasions to the principle of “reasonableness” to stop norms that, without going against any of the Basic Laws, the judges had considered to be contrary to the most elementary norms of equity and justice.

Now the Knesset – pressured above all by the extreme right-wing nationalist parties, which on several occasions have found in the Supreme Court a barrier to proposals that are openly racist or harmful to the rights recognized to Palestinians by other provisions of the Israeli legal system – with an ordinary law (therefore without the qualified majority required for a new Basic Law) has established that judges will no longer be able to invoke the “reasonableness” criterion to reject laws voted in Parliament.

However, the confrontation is far from over. As soon as the law was approved, an association of jurists – the Movement for the Quality of Government in Israel – filed a petition calling for the intervention of the Supreme Court against the new law. And the president of the highest judicial body, Esther Hayut, who was in Germany yesterday due to an institutional commitment, immediately returned to Israel and announced that the appeal will be examined as soon as possible. It is very likely, therefore, that the Court will rule in the coming days in relation to the “law of reasonableness”, also officially opening the conflict between the Judiciary and the Legislative Branch.

Another burning issue remains on the table: the position of the State Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, in open contrast to the Netanyahu government’s Justice policy. She certainly wouldn’t defend the rule in a Supreme Court debate. That is why the Executive could invoke precisely the law that has just been approved to assume the power to dismiss her. But that would increase the strain on the balance of power in the Israeli establishment.