(Jerusalem) Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Thursday that his door remains “open” for negotiations with the opposition on judicial reform after a parliamentary committee adopted a key measure of this controversial project.
The announcement of the project in January sparked one of the largest protest movements in Israel’s history, which mobilizes tens of thousands of protesters across the country every week.
“At this very moment, there are efforts to reach an agreement (with the opposition), but even if that does not succeed, my door will always remain open to negotiations,” Netanyahu said in a televised intervention Thursday evening.
The Knesset (parliament) Legal Committee earlier in the day approved a measure to nullify the ability of the judiciary to rule on the “reasonableness” of government decisions.
Following an intervention by the Supreme Court, the Prime Minister was forced in January to dismiss the number two in the government, Arié Dery, convicted of tax evasion.
The measure will pass into law if parliament approves it at second and third readings at a session scheduled for Monday.
According to the government, the reform of the judicial system aims, among other things, to rebalance powers by reducing the prerogatives of the Supreme Court, which the executive considers politicized, in favor of Parliament.
But its detractors believe that it risks opening the way to an anti-liberal or authoritarian drift.
In an effort to reassure the latter, Mr. Netanyahu also affirmed that this law “will strengthen democracy”, assuring that his country “will continue to be democratic, liberal and will protect the rights of all its citizens”.
“On the verge of dictatorship”
Meanwhile, thousands of demonstrators continued Thursday evening to protest at crossroads in several cities across the country as hundreds more headed to Jerusalem in a march that began Tuesday evening from Tel Aviv.
This march of some 70 km should end on Saturday in front of the Knesset.
“We are marching towards Jerusalem to prevent our country from turning into a dictatorship,” Yair Palti, one of the marchers, told AFP.
“We are a democracy, but now we are on the verge of dictatorship,” he added.
In addition to the measure approved Thursday by the legal committee, other provisions of the reform project cause the dissatisfaction of the demonstrators, such as that modifying the process of appointment of judges, already adopted by the deputies in first reading.
Another clause, called “derogation”, which aims to allow Parliament to overturn a decision of the Supreme Court by a simple majority, has however been abandoned, recalled Thursday evening Mr. Netanyahu.
The project is also drawing criticism abroad, notably in the United States, Israel’s close allies.
US President Joe Biden on Wednesday urged the Israeli government not to “rush” its reforms and to proceed with caution, in an unusually direct criticism of Israel’s domestic politics.