The government coalition postpones a vote in the Knesset on some key points of the legislation
15 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The opposition leader and former Prime Minister of Israel Yair Lapid has demanded this Wednesday that the Government pause parliamentary procedures for 60 days to carry out the controversial reform of the judicial apparatus in order to allow room for dialogue, amid criticism and demonstrations against government plans on this point.
Lapid, who met with the country’s president, Isaac Herzog, on Tuesday, stressed that “the starting point” for the dialogue would be for the Executive to announce a suspension of the procedures before submitting the reform to a vote. Thus, he has defended that this “would allow the president to lead the process” of dialogue.
“We have been waiting 74 years,” he said in his Twitter account, referring to the years since the founding of the State of Israel. “Nothing will happen if it takes a few more weeks, through which we can save the Israeli people from a terrible crisis,” said the Yesh Atid leader.
Lapid has stated that “during those 60 days, the president will establish a professional team led by himself that will lead the national debate” and added that “experts in Constitutional Law” must also rule on the matter, as well as the governor of the Bank of Israel , the head of the Treasury and the heads of the security apparatus.
“We must prevent a situation in which the legislation causes economic and security damage,” said Lapid, who stated that, after these consultations, a dialogue process would begin with the members of the government coalition and the opposition to analyze the proposals.
Subsequently, the conclusions “will be presented to the Israeli public for consideration”, while contacts between the government and the opposition will continue to reach “a real and agreed reform that does not dismantle democracy and the separation of powers, but rather strengthens them”.
“This is how a procedure should work on such a serious issue, in contrast to the hasty, irresponsible, biased and destructive stance currently under way in the Knesset. I have said many times that there is no system in which there is nothing to fix or improve, including the legal system, but if you want to correct it, you have to do it the right way,” he argued.
Finally, he has defended the figure of Herzog, whom he has described as “the president elected with the largest majority in the history of Parliament, accepted by both parties and a talented jurist”, and has advocated “continuing from this point as a single nation, a society and a people with differences of opinion but seeking the common good”.
“We can also not continue if this government dismantles with its own hands the idea of unity in Israel. It would thus cause a wound that could not heal and the dissolution of common life,” he warned, before reiterating his call for “a adequate, transparent and professional process” headed by Herzog.
During the day, the government coalition has revealed a possible change in tactics by postponing a vote in the Knesset on some key points of the legislation, which has been interpreted as a turnaround amid calls for a dialogue with the opposition, according to The newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’ has reported.
These projects include one that would prevent the Supreme Court from blocking the return of the ultra-Orthodox Shas leader, Aryeh Deri, to his post at the head of the Interior and Health ministries, from which he was disqualified by the court because of the conviction against him. for fraud, as well as another to introduce a clause that would allow Parliament to redraft laws struck down by the court.
However, the Minister of Justice, Yariv Levin, and the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on the Constitution, Law and Justice, Simcha Rothman, have maintained that the postponement is due to the withdrawal of private proposals by decision of their authors, before influencing the that are not part of the package discussed in the Knesset. “The legislation on judicial reform continues without pause,” they have settled.
Herzog asked the government on Sunday, made up of various far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, to suspend the parliamentary process of the judicial reform and open a broad national debate to reach a consensus. In this way, he said that “this is not a political dispute” but that “we are on the verge of a constitutional and social collapse.”
The proposal, raised by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and backed by Netanyahu, would give the government full control over the appointment of judges, including those of the Supreme Court, and greatly limit the court’s ability to strike down legislation that violates the law. Constitution, at the same time that it would allow Parliament to modify laws that it manages to annul with a simple majority of 61 of the 120 deputies.
