Media really needs to stop characterizing what’s happening in Israel as just a “judicial overhaul.” They want to end any sort of Supreme Court review of an authoritarian and extremist far-right government.
JERUSALEM, July 24 (Reuters) – Israel’s parliament on Monday ratified the first bill of a judicial overhaul sought by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after last-gasp compromise efforts collapsed and failed to ease a constitutional crisis convulsing the country for months.
The amendment limiting the Supreme Court’s powers to void some government decisions if it deemed them “unreasonable” passed by 64-to-0 vote after opposition lawmakers abandoned the session in protest, some of them shouting: “For shame!”
Demonstrations against the amendment began early in the day with police dragging away protesters who had chained themselves to posts and blocked the road outside parliament. By evening, protesters had taken to the streets of cities across the country. The amendment is part of broader judicial changes the government announced in January, soon after it was sworn in, setting off months of unprecedented nationwide protests and stirring concern among allies abroad for Israel’s democratic health.
