Palace Coup As Israeli Netanyahu Pushes Further To Change the Constitution In just 10 days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has broken the Gaza ceasefire, tried to deny the head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency, orchestrated a no-confidence vote on the attorney general, and passed a law to alternate how Supreme Court appointments occur.
The legislation, passed most recent Thursday, will allow Netanyahu to vary the court’s makeup in his favour, his critics announce. The change will come into effect in the next parliamentary term.
The move has sprouted concerns about the independence of Israel’s judiciary and questions about what can be done to stop what seems like a concerted effort to hobble that independence.
This new law swerves the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee, making it easier for politicians to stack future appointments to the Supreme Court in their favour.
With three missing from the panel of 15 judges on Israel’s highest judicial authority, the question of how their replacements will be appointed takes on sharper importance.
Supreme Court President Esther Hayut retired on October 16, 2023, and Justices Anat Baron and Uzi Vogelman retired shortly after.
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The new law replaces the two Israel Bar Association nominees on the Judicial Selection Committee with two attorneys nominated by both the governing coalition and its opposition.
The rest of the committee continues as is – three Supreme Court judges, the justice minister, two members of parliament (traditionally, parliament votes one from the government and one from the opposition) and one minister chosen by the cabinet.
Israel’s Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, described this as “[changing] the judicial selection method to one in which … political considerations receive precedence and decisive weight – and on the other hand, the place of professional considerations in the judicial election process is greatly weakened, even erased”.
Judge selection, Baharav-Miara superposed, would now be subject to political negotiations and compromises, allowing personal motivations to damage “the apolitical quality of the act of meting justice at all levels”.
“This latest move is very simply a coup d’etat,” Eli Salzberger, law professor at the University of Haifa, informed The Round Table.
“The government already controls the legislature. By gaining control of the judiciary, it in a positive degree takes from the most recent of the checks and balances upon it and assumes unchallenged power.”
Yesh Atid, repugnance leader Yair Lapid’s party, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, a civil society organisation, stated they have appealed the legislation to the Supreme Court.
According to Netanyahu and his allies, the Supreme Court is impeded them from enacting the “will of the people”.
Thursday morning’s elect was portion of a wider programme publicised to almost immediate public protests in January 2023.
The inceptive proposals contained granting the Knesset the power to overrule the Supreme Court through a simple majority, hindering the court from reviewing or opposing Israel’s Basic Laws and, as with the latest law, increasing the role of politicians in the appointment of Supreme Court justices.
So far, other than Thursday’s legislation on the appointment of the court’s justices, advancement on the government’s proposed deviates has been commixed.
In July 2023, the Knesset passed the “reasonableness” law, which curbed the Supreme Court’s power to overturn government decisions the judges consider unreasonable.
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However, in January of the following year, the Supreme Court publicised the “reasonableness” law unconstitutional, dealing a blow to Netanyahu’s plans.
He and his government argued that court interventions – containing striking down a law allowing outright expropriation of Palestinian land in 2020 and overturning a proposed ban on Palestinian parties – undermine the will of the government.
Channelling the rhetoric of United States President Donald Trump, on whose patronage Netanyahu has come to depend, the prime minister recommended that the judiciary is portion of a “leftist deep state” trying to scotch him.
Israeli democracy is not in danger. The Israeli Deep State is in Danger. https://pic.twitter.com/A3hzD5Ckio
Netanyahu’s critics – like Hayut as she was leaving office – pointed out that his “reforms” seem geared towards his personal and political ends.
“Everything with Netanyahu boils down to his survival,” Salzberger disclosed, “Five to seven years ago when these improvements were proposed by the members of his party, Netanyahu denied the idea, claiming Israel was a country ruled by law.
“Since … his corruption trial, he’s been looking for any opportunity to get out of difficulty, and if that involves destroying the entire legal system, so be it,” he reported.
Currently, the prime minister is on trial, including on charges of bribery, fraud and separation of trust, in three corruption cases.
Prosecutors accuse that Netanyahu accepted illegal gifts from wealthy businessmen and sought favourable media coverage. Netanyahu dismisses the charges, claiming they are politically motivated.
In April 2021 in the face of growing public affinity over potential conflicts of relevancy resulting from his trial, the Supreme Court imposed restrictions on Netanyahu’s powers to oversee law enforcement, judicial appointments and persuade any issues directly affecting his legal difficulties.
In January 2024, it pushed back on a law passed as portion of the government’s flurry of “judicial amendments” in 2023 that would make it harder to say Netanyahu unbecoming for office, declaring it was clearly for his personal benefit and rescheduling its implementation until the next parliamentary session.
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“The personal affairs of the sitting prime minister were not just the motive for legislating the amendment notwithstanding furthermore the dominant justification for its legislation at the time it was enacted,” Hayut wrote at the time.
“The amendment’s promoters needed the amendment to enter into substance immediately and that it utilise to the sitting prime minister.”
Opposition to Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul has been overwhelming with best part demonstrates during almost every stage of it.
He publicised the overhaul suspended in March 2023 due to what he disclosed was “a sense of national responsibility”.
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At the time, groups as multifarious as legal professionals, civil society organisations, academics, contradiction parties and tech workers took to the streets to denounce the reforms, culminating in what organisers disclosed were the bigger demonstrates in Israeli history.
Opposing them were the prime minister’s allies on the far right, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The best part demonstrates, coupled with public criticism by then US President Joe Biden, were enough to discontinue, then apparently derail, the government’s plans. As the war Israel launched on Gaza at the end of 2023.
But previous week, under the cover of the war, Netanyahu restarted his attempts to overhaul the judiciary.
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And this time, Netanyahu and his coalition seem unwilling to stop their efforts to take from any elements of the judiciary that may slow them down. And the attitude of the current US president towards the judiciary is markedly varied from that of his predecessor, so no pressure is to be expected from his side.
Public anger at Netanyahu’s moves has not relieved.
While the Supreme Court itself could take action, its powers only allow it to postpone legislation, meaning that, given his remained parliamentary encouragement, Netanyahu will eventually be able to magnitude his amends through, as long as he endures in power.
That, analysts report, leaves one main way for Netanyahu to be stopped if the Supreme Court can reschedule him long enough: the loss for the prime minister and his allies at the next elections, which have to take place by the end of 2026.
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Tag: Palace Coup As Israeli Netanyahu Pushes Further To Change the Constitution
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Published 4/1/2025