(Jerusalem) The two main leaders of the Israeli opposition, Yaïr Lapid and Benny Gantz, on Wednesday suspended their participation in the negotiations supposed to make it possible to find common ground on the judicial reform, wanted by the government of Benyamin Netanyahu, but which profoundly divides the country.
MK Yair Lapid, former prime minister and leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, and his colleague Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity Party, announced the decision at a joint press conference in Jerusalem after the failed Parliament elects its representatives to the Judicial Appointments Commission.
“Without the establishment of [cette] commission […]we will not go [discuter] at the president’s” Isaac Herzog, who mediates between the majority and several opposition parties, Lapid said.
He accused Mr. Netanyahu of having “prevented today” the formation of this body and of having thus “finished making people believe that he was open to discussion”.
“In the current state of affairs where there is no commission as it should be, there is no point in having discussions with the president”, added Mr. Gantz.
Argument denied by Mr. Netanyahu, according to whom “it is proven today that Gantz and Lapid tried by all means to dynamite the negotiations”. “Their candidate was elected and yet they are undermining the negotiations; that’s the proof [qu’ils] don’t want a real negotiation,” he said in a video message.
In the current state of the legislation, the commission for the appointment of judges includes among its nine members two deputies. It is customary for one to come from the majority, the other from the opposition.
If the opposition candidate, Karine Elharrar, supported by MM. Gantz and Lapid, was elected with the support of majority votes, the latter failed to agree on the name of its candidate following differences within its ranks. Consequently, a new ballot must take place within thirty days.
Formed at the end of December with the support of far-right parties and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties, Mr. Netanyahu’s government is trying to push through a justice reform that has given rise to one of the largest protest movements in the world. history of Israel.
The government says the reform is necessary to ensure a better balance of power when critics see it as a threat to Israeli democracy and its institutional safeguards.