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Israel's Knesset on Monday afternoon adopted the first element of the government's controversial judicial overhaul plan, after hours of debates since Sunday morning.
The first element, called the "Reasonableness Clause," will prevent Supreme Court oversight over government decisions, including the nomination of ministers and other senior positions.
Narrow majority
The Knesset vote took place despite protests across the country throughout the weekend, including thousands of people who marched by foot for two days from Kibbutz Nahshon to Jerusalem, nearly 30 kilometers (19 miles) away. Talks mediated by President Isaac Herzog up until the second and third decisive Knesset readings failed to reach a compromise.
The vote curbing the Supreme Court was along party lines, with a narrow majority of 64 (out of 120) allowing its passage. In a symbolic move, all 56 members of the opposition, including the Arab parties, left the Knesset plenum, boycotting the final vote.
The Tel Aviv stock market closed with a sharp drop of 2.3% after the adoption of the ‘’Reasonableness Clause,’’ and the shekel weakened by 1.2% against the dollar. Small drops were registered earlier on Monday before the adoption of the bill, increasing after it was approved by the Knesset — some two hours before the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange closed for the day.
Released from the hospital on Sunday after having a pacemaker installed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu championed the passing at the Knesset plenum of the first bill of his judicial overhaul plan.
US calls it “unfortunate”
Axios reported that President Joe Biden also appealed to the Israeli leadership to halt the judicial overhaul, arguing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition should not rush their “divisive” bid, given the numerous threats and challenges Israel faces.
In a statement to Axios, Biden called upon Netanyahu not to move forward with the planned Knesset vote, saying he is highly concerned about the legislation and its potential implications. “Given the range of threats and challenges confronting Israel right now, it doesn’t make sense for Israeli leaders to rush this — the focus should be on pulling people together and finding consensus," Biden said.
This was Biden's second warning after an interview with The New York Times' Tom Friedman last week. In that interview, the US president was described as "deeply worried for the stability and future of Israel, America’s most important Middle East ally and a country for which he wears his affection on his sleeve."
In a statement on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed Biden’s concerns and hoped for a compromise.
“As a lifelong friend of Israel, President Biden has publicly and privately expressed his views that major democratic changes to be enduring must have as broad a consensus as possible,” the White House said. “It is unfortunate that the vote today took place with the slimmest possible majority. We understand talks are ongoing and likely to continue over the coming weeks and months to forge a broader compromise even with the Knesset in recess,” it added.
Washington said it supports broader consensus through political dialogue.
Monday's controversial vote followed months of mass protests that have paralyzed Israel. Netanyahu's coalition, the most far-right government in Israel's history, started pushing its judicial overhaul plan for eroding the powers of the courts in favor of the Knesset soon after it won the last elections in November 2022, triggering mass demonstrations against it both in Israel and abroad.
Protests have continued outside the Knesset after the adoption of the bill. Demonstrators have also blocked the Jerusalem main traffic route Begin Road, which passes through the west of the city from north to south. Some of the demonstrators had set up mobile fences on the road while security forces are using water canons to try and disperse them. Tel Aviv police are now preparing for a mass demonstration expected to take place Monday night in the center of the city. Several main roads in Tel Aviv are blocked by police to prevent vehicles from driving where crowds are expected to gather.
Strikes on the table
Opposition leader Yair Lapid called Monday evening on more than 1000 reservists officers who threatened to end volunteer duty to reconsider their threat. ‘’Israel will not turn into neither Poland nor Hungary,’’ warned Lapid. He explained that his party will submit to the Supreme Court a petition against the bill on Tuesday morning.
Israel’s biggest public sector union, which represents more than 800,000 workers, threatened strikes and said it would announce a labor dispute in the coming days in response to the vote.
“From this moment on any unilateral advancement of the reform will have grave consequences,” Arnon Bar-David, head of the Histadrut Labor Federation, said. He added that the consequences include “up to and including a full strike” of workers’ unions throughout the country.
Bar-David has been trying to mediate a compromise between the government and the opposition but with little success so far.
"From this moment on, any unilateral progress in the reform will have serious consequences. … Either things will progress with [a] broad agreement or they will not progress at all," the union head added.
The judicial overhaul has led to 68% of Israeli startups taking active legal and financial steps, such as withdrawing cash reserves and changing the location of their headquarters due to a lack of foreign direct investment, a survey by Start-Up Nation Central on Sunday found. The survey found that 22% of companies report that they have diversified cash reserves outside of Israel, and 37% of investors say businesses in their portfolios have withdrawn some of their cash reserves and moved them abroad.
Addressing the Israeli public late on Monday, Netanyahu claimed the vote strengthens the hand of politicians over the Supreme Court and is at the heart of the democratic process.
‘’Israel will remain a democratic state, a liberal state. It will not turn into a state run by Jewish-religious laws. … Realizing the voter’s will is not the end of democracy, it is the essence of democracy,‘’ pledged Netanyahu. He then blamed leaders of the protest movement for striving to topple his government, unrelated to the judicial overhaul issue. Netanyahu said that for three months his coalition proposed to the opposition all sorts of compromises, but ‘’the hand we offered them stayed hanging in the air.‘’
The Israeli premier warned against the growing refusal to serve reserve duty in the army and against allegedly dragging the military into a political debate. Contrary to speculations before his televised statement, Netanyahu did not offer to renegotiate the new bill, saying merely that talks on the issue ‘’are still taking place’’ and ‘’the door of the coalition will always remain open.‘’
