Israel’s storm of protest over judicial reform
Plans by Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu to have judges appointed by the government and to curb the right of courts to rule on constitutional issues have “provoked a storm of protest”, says The Times. At least 70,000 demonstrated against the move outside Israel’s parliament as president Isaac Herzog warned that political polarisation had brought Israel “to the brink of constitutional and social collapse”. The criticism was echoed by senior bankers, executives in the tech sector, a former head of the Mossad intelligence agency, and the Biden administration.
The issue is more complicated than it seems, says The Wall Street Journal. Israel’s Supreme Court has more power than America’s, but without the democratic checks and balances, or even a written constitution. Israel’s court is able to strike down laws that it finds merely unreasonable, which can cover almost anything. Last month it barred an elected member of parliament from serving in Netanyahu’s cabinet, for example, even though the Knesset had changed the law that prevented him from serving, a move that could collapse the ruling coalition. This is not to defend Netanyahu, but it isn’t “anti-democratic” to argue that Israel’s Supreme Court needs reform.
Still, Netanyahu will have to tread carefully, as the moves could easily lead investors to pull money out of the country, jeopardising all his work to “transform Israel into the world’s leading start-up nation”, says Thomas Friedman in The New York Times. The head of the central bank has warned that the plans could “scare away investors and negatively impact the country’s credit rating”.