Meretz leader meets Netanyahu, slams proposed court reforms

MK Zahava Gal-on, who leads the liberal Meretz party, met Monday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss his plans to advance a law limiting judicial power.

The bill, introduced by Jewish Home member Ayelet Shaked, would restrict the power of the court to overturn Knesset legislation — something Gal-on finds inconsistent with Israel’s democratic values.

“Without a meaningful judicial authority, democracy cannot exist,” Gal-on wrote in a Facebook post Monday night. “There is no one to defend it against the tyranny of the majority, no one who will guard it against itself.”

The Meretz leader reiterated that statement Tuesday in an interview with Israel Radio and also responded to the notion that Netanyahu must support the bill in order to form a coalition.

“The prime minister today is in a situation where he has 30 seats in the Knesset,” she said. “He has different options for putting together a government.”

Still, Gal-on scoffed at the suggestion that one such option was a national unity government including the left-wing Zionist Union party. “A right-wing government is what the country chose,” she said, “and I respect the country’s decision.”

She asserted that although she, too, has been critical of the High Court in the past, its powers should not be limited by the executive branch.

“Only recently I criticized the judicial system that sometimes they restrain themselves too much,” Gal-on said, giving Israel’s anti-boycott law as an example. The 2011 law made it illegal for groups to boycott Israel and was upheld by the court, despite accusations by civil rights groups that it limited freedom of expression.

But passing a law overriding the court’s power to oversee legislation, she maintained, would allow “a chance majority in the Knesset, a random parliamentary majority” to take away power from the judicial branch of the government, and inflict “the greatest possible damage on — first of all — human rights and also on Israel’s standing in the world.”

Netanyahu has also reportedly indicated his willingness to promote a bill that would give politicians far more clout in the process of selecting judges.

Gal-on also discussed recent statements made by Wendy Sherman, US under secretary of state for political affairs, on the continuing American call for a two-state solution.

“The Israeli government, under the leadership of Netanyahu, does not intend to enter direct negotiations with the Palestinians,” Gal-on told Israel Radio.

“We rely on the Americans constantly for their support, mostly in the UN, in order to veto the Palestinian initiative, and other initiatives, but mostly the Palestinian bid for statehood recognition in the UN,” she said. “So when the need the Americans it’s fine, but when whatever they are saying is uncomfortable for us, people start talking about ‘flagrant and gross interference.'”

The Israeli public and the United States, Gal-on continued, should put constant pressure “on the Israeli government to enter into the [peace] process.”