Ex-AG Mandelblit: Overhaul legislation has Israel ‘on brink of dictatorship’

Former attorney general Avichai Mandelblit warned Tuesday that the country stands on the “brink of dictatorship,” given that the coalition could pass key legislation aimed at radically overhauling the judiciary within days.

Mandelblit, who was appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2016, has repeatedly criticized the effort by the premier’s current government to curb the judiciary, but his comments during a Channel 12 interview appeared to go further than he has before, presenting a dire state of affairs in Israel.

“We have turned into a country that is on the brink of dictatorship. This is how I define it,” Mandelblit said, pointing to legislation that would give the coalition control over the Judicial Selection Committee, which was submitted to the Knesset for a final vote.

That move was made in late March just after Netanyahu announced that he was pausing the judicial overhaul to allow for talks with the opposition aimed at a compromise on judicial reform. It allows the coalition to call a vote at just about any given moment and pass the far-reaching, controversial bill in a day’s time.

Mandelblit said Israel had been brought to the cusp of “dictatorship” by that decision, plus the advancement of another piece of legislation aimed at barring the High Court of Justice from striking down legislation passed by the Knesset with the status of a Basic Law, and Tuesday’s advancement of a bill that would bar the judiciary from striking down government decisions it deems unreasonable.

“The moment those things are passed, then yes, our regime is changed,” he lamented.

The coalition has indicated that it doesn’t plan to pass the version of the Judicial Selection Committee bill that it advanced in March and will reportedly submit a softened version in subsequent parliamentary sessions.

Mandelblit, who filed an indictment against Netanyahu for alleged corruption in 2020 for which the premier is currently on trial, flatly rejected the coalition’s claim that the “reasonableness” bill it advanced this week had been softened.

He argued that the legislation would completely neutralize courts’ ability to use the yardstick, which he said is critical, given that the checks on government power are already limited since Israel doesn’t have a constitution or two houses of parliament.

The ex-AG maintained that a more reasonable restriction of the judicial review tool’s use would be to bar its application on general government policy, as opposed to preventing its deployment to strike down government appointments, where it serves as a necessary check.

“The meaning of this bill is that everyone will be able to appoint whomever they want to public service. There will be no oversight — neither on appointments nor on dismissals,” Mandelblit warned.

Earlier Tuesday, a key coalition lawmaker responsible for advancing the controversial bill said that he does not expect to make meaningful changes to the text of the legislation, as he began to prepare it for its final Knesset votes.

“I will say clearly, I am not convinced that the bill needs to be changed in its essence,” MK Simcha Rothman told Army Radio.

Rothman chairs the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, which reconvened on Tuesday afternoon to prepare the bill for its final floor votes, in line with the coalition’s planned July 30 timeline for passing the legislation, which is one element of the government’s plan to overhaul the judiciary.

Responding to criticism that the bill’s vague language may let it be applied to decisions by a large swath of elected officials, Rothman told the committee that the bill only applies to the cabinet and its ministers, and does not currently extend to city officials.