Israeli Supreme Court sets date to hear petitions against judicial reform

Israel's Supreme Court has decided to hear petitions filed against the 'reasonableness law' that the Knesset enacted this week

Tel Aviv: Israel’s Supreme Court has decided to hear petitions filed against the ‘reasonableness law’ that the Knesset enacted this week, with a court date set for September, according to the NGO Movement for Quality Government in Israel.

While scheduling a hearing, the court did not go as far as to issue an emergency injunction against the law, as several of the seven petitioners had requested.

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We are ready. We will appear at the Supreme Court to defend Israeli democracy and do everything we can to stop the judicial coup, the Movement for Quality Government’s chairman Eliad Shraga told local media. We will continue to protest and fight everywhere and from every podium until the threat is removed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will have to file its response 10 days before the hearing, which is scheduled for after the court’s summer recess.

On Monday afternoon, all 64 members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition voted into law a bill to restrict judges use of the ‘reasonableness’ standard. The amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary bars reasonableness as a justification for judges to reverse decisions made by the Cabinet, ministers and other elected officials as set by law.

 The bill formally came into effect on Wednesday morning, the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee announced.

Netanyahu has confirmed reports that the coalition would seek a broad agreement on the rest of the judicial reform package over the summer break, which starts on July 30.

We all agree that Israel must remain a strong democracy, that it will continue to protect everyone’s individual rights, that it will not become a halachic state, the prime minister said on Monday in an address to the nation, using the term for Jewish law.

Separate from the petitions against the reasonableness law, opposition leader Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid Party this week asked the court to order Justice Minister Yariv Levin to convene the Judicial Selection Committee, which is responsible for appointing new justices to the Supreme Court. Lapid’s petition will also be heard in September, he said on Wednesday.

The governing coalition’s judicial reforms are deeply controversial. Other legislation advancing through the Knesset would primarily alter the way judges are appointed and removed, give the Knesset the ability to override certain High Court rulings, and change the way legal advisors are appointed to government ministries.

Supporters of the legal overhaul say they want to end years of judicial overreach while opponents describe the proposals as anti-democratic.