Tens of thousands of people demonstrated on Monday in Jerusalem against the government’s project which intends to limit the powers of the Supreme Court. The first texts will be debated Wednesday at the Knesset.
by Louis Imbert (Jerusalem, correspondent)
In the stations of Tel Aviv, the big liberal city of the coast, thousands of demonstrators are struggling, Monday, February 13 in the morning, to go up in the crowded trains which must lead them to Jerusalem, to protest in front of the Parliament. They will denounce a reform of the judicial institution led by the coalition of conservative parties, extreme right and religious of Benyamin Netanyahu, in power since December 2022.
“Change of regime”, “coup d’etat”: slogans launched in the trains of trains to the warnings of the highest civil servants, the same words come back. It is a cultural war which speaks in broad daylight Monday, an existential question which divides Israel: to whom belongs the country?
Around 10 am, opponents gather for a prayer under the wall of the lamentations, a vestige of the temple of Jerusalem, destroyed in the sixth century. Shortly before, in a cramped room in the Knesset, the first two texts of this reform are finalized in disorder. Opposition deputies begin the session of the Committee for the Constitution, the Law and the Justice by defeating hands on the Round Table and singing: “I have no other country”.
Several admonish the chairman of the committee, Simcha Rothman: “Shame! Shame on you!” They lie on the carpet, force guards to drag them towards the exit. Around 10:30 a.m., two texts are voted in a committee. They will be debated in plenary session during a first reading scheduled for Wednesday. 2> several bills
The first relates to the appointment of members of the Supreme Court. They are currently chosen by a group of judges, deputies and lawyers of the bar, under supervision of the Minister of Justice. The reform proposes to withdraw lawyers from this panel, where two citizens would sit in their place, in addition to a minister, offering in power a majority of five votes out of nine.
This is a blow to the independence of the fifteen court judges, overwhelmed with work, who assume both the burden of the Constitutional Council, of the administrative, civil and criminal court of appeal, and which represent the ‘Unique institutional counter-power with an elected majority. The second text deprives them of their power to invalidate the work of parliamentarians when they have one of the fundamental laws of the country, which take the place of constitution.
This is only the beginning. The coalition has fragmented its reform into several projects. She plans to vote them one by one, for months. None of his 64 elected officials has so far expressed dissension, even if their reform worries a clear majority of Israelis, according to opinion surveys. The lawyer general prohibited Mr. Netanyahu from getting involved in this company: she fears a conflict of interest. The balance of power he establishes with justice can disrupt his trial for corruption, open in 2021.
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