Thousands of Israelis protest proposed judicial reforms: What does the govt want to change, and why?

Protestors have claimed that the proposed changes would curtail judicial independence, promote corruption and put civil and minority rights at risk in Israel.

Israelis protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to overhaul the judicial system, outside Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem on February 13 (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Written by: Alind Chauhan

6 min readNew DelhiFeb 15, 2023 08:43 AM IST First published on: Feb 14, 2023 at 08:50 PM IST

Around 100,000 Israelis from across the country took to the streets outside their Parliament in Jerusalem on Monday (February 13), to protest against the sweeping judicial reform plans introduced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, according to The New York Times.

The protestors, who were carrying Israeli flags, megaphones and homemade banners, reached the spot by train and in convoys of buses and cars. They raised slogans in support of democracy, freedom and judicial independence.

Monday’s protests came just a day after President Isaac Herzog gave a televised speech warning that the country was “on the brink of constitutional and social collapse”. He urged the lawmakers to reach a compromise regarding the issue.

What triggered the protests in Israel?

According to The Guardian, protests in Israel have been a weekly fixture on Saturday evenings ever since Netanyahu and his far-right allies came to power in December 2022. However, they intensified after Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a close confidant of Netanyahu, unveiled the ruling coalition’s proposal to overhaul the country’s legal system in the first week of January.

The plan includes four major changes. First, the government wants to enable the 120-member parliament, or Knesset, to override any Supreme Court judgement by a simple majority of 61 votes unless those rulings are unanimous.

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Second, it also seeks to scrap the test of “reasonability” the apex court has previously used to strike out executive practices.

Apart from this, Levin proposed a law that would give a greater role to lawmakers in the appointment of Supreme Court judges. As of now, a committee comprising professionals, justices and lawmakers elevate judges to the top court. The new change would provide “lawmakers a majority in the committee, with most coming from the right-wing and religiously conservative ruling coalition”, as per a report by Associated Press.

Also, Levin wants to allow ministers to choose their own legal advisors instead of using independent professionals.

On Monday, even as tens of thousands of protestors gathered on the streets, chaos ensued inside the Israeli Parliament after a government-controlled committee voted to advance part of the proposed legislation. According to the NYT report, opposition leaders chanted slogans against the decision and “some of them clambered over tables to confront the committee chair, Simcha Rothman, a government lawmaker.”

It also added that Monday’s committee vote would be followed by intense debates on the floor of Parliament, which is one of the first steps towards turning the proposal into law in the coming months.

Why do Netanyahu and his allies want to change the working of the judiciary?

Conservatives and the right wing in Israel have for a long time seen the judiciary as a left-leaning impediment to its legislative agenda. Moreover, Netanyahu’s coalition government has claimed that Israelis have lost faith in the legal system and that its reform plans would restore power to elected representatives instead of “interventionist judges”.

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Apart from this, the government seeks to use the power to override the Supreme Court judgements in order to get rid of the court’s “rulings outlawing Israeli outposts on private Palestinian land” and curtail social reforms, including those that would impact the LGBTQ community”, according to AP.

Experts also suggest that the proposed reforms in the judiciary might be used by the ruling parties to influence Netanyahu’s corruption trial, which is currently being overseen by Israel’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. Although the changes wouldn’t directly impact the ongoing court case, many fear it is just the beginning and the government would later alter the laws to exonerate Netanyahu.

These concerns aren’t unfounded as last year, during the election campaigning, Netanyahu’s allies floated the idea of restricting the attorney general’s power by dividing the post into three separate jobs while ensuring that at least two of the positions are political appointments.

As of now, the attorney general is nominated by the government and must get approval from a professional committee that comprises former justice officials and others. Notably, Baharav-Miara was appointed during the tenure of the previous government, led by current Opposition leader Yair Lapid.

Why are so many leaders warning of violence?

President Herzog isn’t the only one to indicate the possibility of violence over the proposed reforms. On Monday, Lapid at a press conference warned that the legislature “threatens to destroy the country at breakneck speed”, The Times of Israel reported. “If this legislation passes, the democratic chapter in the life of the state will end,” he said.

Former defence minister Benny Gantz has also warned of civil war.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu has accused his critics of “taking the country toward anarchy.” He said, “Most citizens of Israel don’t want anarchy. They want discourse that is focused, and, in the end, they want unity.”

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Several other political leaders have also raised concerns regarding the brewing tension within the country. Opinion polls have suggested that Israeli society is deeply divided about the proposed reforms in the judiciary. The NYT said, “Roughly 44 per cent of Israelis support the judicial overhaul and 41 per cent oppose it, according to a recent poll by the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem-based research group.”

Experts suggest that the protests coupled with the uptick in violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank — 47 Palestinians and 10 Israelis have been killed so far this year — might lead to further deterioration of law and order in the country.

With a ruling government that includes far-right parties, ultra-orthodox Jewish leaders and controversial figures like Itamar Ben-Gvir — he was recently criticised for visiting the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, a disputed holy site, in Jerusalem — human rights activists point out that tensions between the Palestinian minority, which forms about 20 per cent of the wider population, and Israeli nationalists might escalate.

According to a report by NYT, in almost two months of the tenure of the new government, “Israelis and Palestinians have already experienced one of their region’s most violent phases, outside a full-scale war, in years”.