Supreme Court strikes down government law to limit its powers
Ruling could reignite political, legal turmoil
JERUSALEM — Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday struck down a law limiting its own powers, a momentous step in the legal and political crisis that gripped the country before the war with Hamas, and pitted the court against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing government.
The court’s 8-7 ruling has the potential to throw Israel’s national emergency government, formed after the Oct. 7 attacks, into disarray and reignite the grave domestic turmoil that began a year ago over the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul plan. Mass protests brought the country to a nearstandstill at times, in one of the deepest political upheavals Israel had faced in its 75 years, and led to warnings of possible civil war.
The court, sitting with a full panel of all 15 justices for the first time in its history, rejected the law passed by parliament in July that barred judges from using a particular legal standard to overrule decisions made by government ministers.
The decision comes at a precarious time for Israel, deeply engaged in a brutal war in the Gaza Strip and under nearly daily rocket fire from Iranianbacked militants along its northern border. It is seeking to project an image of strength to its enemies but has been shaken by the Oct. 7 Hamas-led surprise attack, by a shrinking economy, and by the alarm and pressure from its closest allies over the deaths of thousands of civilians in Gaza.
The much-anticipated decision did not come as a total surprise to Israelis. A television station last week reported on a leaked draft of the ruling. But it heralds a potential showdown that could fundamentally reshape Israeli democracy, pitting the power of the elected government against that of the judiciary.
The divisions over the law are part of a wider ideological and cultural standoff.
Netanyahu’s political allies and their supporters want to make Israel into a more religious and nationalist state. Their opponents, who hold a more secular and pluralist vision of the country, accused the government of undermining democracy by lowering the barriers to a majority doing whatever it pleases.
The ruling was swiftly denounced by Netanyahu’s allies, who in late 2022 formed the most right-wing and religiously conservative government in Israel’s history. The prime minister’s Likud party said the decision was “in opposition to the nation’s desire for unity, especially in a time of war.” In a statement, it slammed the court for ruling on the issue when Israeli soldiers are “fighting and endangering themselves in battle.”
Yariv Levin, the Israeli justice minister widely seen as the architect of the judicial overhaul, vowed to resume efforts to pass the package of controversial bills that included the newly overturned measure. He accused the high court of sowing divisiveness at a time when the nation is in danger.
Critics of Netanyahu and his allies have argued that, in fact, the government’s fixation on weakening the independence of the judiciary contributed to Israel being caught off guard by the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas that touched off the war, killed 1,200 people and seized more than 240 hostages, according to authorities.
Yair Lapid, the parliamentary opposition leader, hailed the court for “faithfully fulfilling its duty to protect the people of Israel.”
Members of Netanyahu’s coalition immediately seized on the argument that the court’s ruling would harm the country’s ability to prosecute the war in Gaza.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the farright ultranationalist who serves as Israel’s national security minister, said the decision was illegal and “a dangerous, antidemocratic episode — and most importantly, a ruling that harms the war effort of Israel against its enemies.”
For the overhaul’s opponents, it was a long-hoped-for victory — albeit one that evoked concern that the country might now backslide from wartime unity to yawning internal divides.
Thousands of military reservists who said during the protests that they would refuse service if the law was passed set that vow aside and reported for duty after the war began.