Negotiations between majority and opposition parties on Israel’s ultra-controversial justice reform plan continue on Wednesday, after a first meeting “in a positive spirit” the day before, Israeli President Isaac’s office said. Herzog.
“After about an hour and a half, the meeting, which took place in a positive spirit, came to an end,” the president’s office said in a statement on Tuesday evening. “Tomorrow, President Isaac Herzog will continue the series of meetings,” he added.
This first “dialogue meeting” took place at Mr. Herzog’s residence in Jerusalem between “the work teams representing the ruling coalition”, as well as the opposition parties Yesh Atid and the National Unity Party, according to the press release.
Yaïr Lapid and Benny Gantz, respective leaders of these two centrist parties, announced on Monday that they were ready to dialogue with the majority, under the aegis of Mr. Herzog.
Shortly before, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had “decided on a pause” in the examination of the controversial justice reform project which is dividing the country, in order to give “a chance for a real dialogue” with a view to adoption of a more consensual text during the summer parliamentary session which begins on 30 April.
“We thank the president for opening his house to the negotiation process for the benefit of the citizens of Israel. We joined him on behalf of a large audience that understood how fragile and vulnerable our democracy is,” the Yesh Atid party said on Twitter.
US President Joe Biden, whose government had welcomed the “pause” announced by Mr. Netanyahu, again pleaded on Tuesday evening for an abandonment of the project. “They cannot continue on this path and I think I have made myself understood,” said the American president on the sidelines of a visit to North Carolina.
“I hope they will give it up,” he said later about the text of the law, once back in Washington. He added that he did not plan to invite Mr. Netanyahu to the White House “in the short term”.
The “pause” announced by Mr. Netanyahu after the start of a general strike and the appearance of tensions within the majority was greeted with skepticism by protesters as well as by several political commentators.
“Stinging Defeat”
For Nahum Barnea, columnist for the daily Yediot Aharonot, the Prime Minister “knew how to turn a bitter defeat into a draw with nice words”. “Whatever he says or will say, few people believe him, I believe that the confidence in him is not great including” on the right, he wrote.
Supported by one of the most right-wing governments that Israel has known, the justice reform project has given rise to one of the largest popular mobilization movements in the country.
If they accepted the mediation of Mr. Herzog, MM. Lapid and Gantz also warned the government against deception.
Alluding to the bill on the composition of the commission responsible for selecting judges, one of the most contested aspects of the reform, their two parties warned in a joint statement that they would “immediately” leave the negotiating table if this text “is put on the program of Parliament”.
For the government, the reform aims to rebalance powers by reducing the prerogatives of the Supreme Court, which the executive considers politicized, in favor of Parliament.
Its detractors believe, on the contrary, that the reform risks leading to an illiberal or authoritarian drift.
“Ceasefire”
The announcement of the suspension of the review of the reform in Parliament was preceded by long negotiations between Mr. Netanyahu and his far-right partners, in particular the Minister of Internal Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, who, according to the press , had threatened to leave the government in the event of a pause in the reform.
Mr. Ben Gvir’s party has announced the signing of an agreement between the two men, granting the minister the creation of a civilian “national guard” under his authority, and on which no details have yet been communicated.
“It’s a victory for the protesters but the one who really made Netanyahu bend and trampled on him was Itamar Ben Gvir […]he obtained from him a scandalous promise: the creation of a militia which will be under his orders”, denounces Yossi Verter, political correspondent for Haaretz, on the front page of the left-wing daily.
For Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Institute for Democracy, a think tank, “this is a ceasefire perhaps to regroup, reorganize and then, potentially, charge forward.”
Several members of the ruling coalition ensure that the reform will be voted on in the long term.
One of the collectives at the origin of the demonstrations against the reform announced the continuation of the challenge “as long as the judicial coup is not completely stopped”. Demonstrations took place for Tuesday evening in Tel Aviv and outside Mr. Hezog’s residence in Jerusalem.