Gantz urges Netanyahu to form joint team to shape judicial reform
National Unity leader warns government’s current plans will leave Israel a ‘hollow’ democracy, says working together will ensure broad consensus on changes
National Unity party leader Benny Gantz on Thursday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to put together a team with both coalition and opposition representatives in order to forge a broadly agreed-upon plan for judicial reform.
Gantz spoke at the opening of Reichman University’s annual Democracy Day events on Thursday, the morning after Justice Minister Yariv Levin revealed the government’s plans to massively increase political control over the judicial system.
Gantz argued that a joint effort will ensure wide public backing for changes, whereas proceeding with the current plan will gut Israel’s democratic nature.
The changes set out by Levin during a press conference at the Knesset would severely limit the authority of the Supreme Court, give the government control over appointing judges, and end the independence of government legal advisers.
“We are in a real emergency, and therefore I call on Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu to make a decision: negotiation or confrontation,” Gantz said.
Setting a six-month timeline to complete the work, he urged Netanyahu “to establish a cross-party and cross-political camp team, which will discuss the enactment of a Basic Law in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, expressing the voices of all the people and citizens of Israel.
“An issue so fundamental to our future and existence for decades ahead deserves to be done with a broad consensus,” he said.
A spokesperson for Levin declined to comment on Gantz’s overture, and a spokesman for the prime minister did not respond to a request for comment.
Gantz formerly teamed up with Netanyahu to lead a brief 2020-2021 unity government, which Netanyahu folded in what was seen as a move to prevent passing the premiership on to Gantz, as he’d promised. Eschewing the notion of once again joining a Netanyahu-led government, Gantz has routinely said that Netanyahu has “expended his political credit.”
With Netanyahu’s right-religious coalition firmly ensconced in 64 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, and all parties signed on to back its moves to constrain the court, Netanyahu and Levin are not expected to accept Gantz’s offer.
Gantz vowed that if Netanyahu does not agree, the opposition will “fight the proposal that aims to turn Israel into a hollow democracy and abolish the values of the Declaration of Independence.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, who vacated the premiership last Thursday for Netanyahu, has similarly pledged to fight the “madness” of the cabinet’s judicial reform plan, and said if he returned to power he would “cancel” any provisions that are passed.
Levin specified plans for change in four core areas: restricting the High Court’s capacity to strike down laws and government decisions, by requiring a panel of all the court’s 15 judges and a “special majority” to do so, and including an “override clause” enabling the Knesset to re-legislate such laws; changing the process for choosing judges, to give the government effective control of the selection panel; preventing the court from using a litmus test of “reasonableness” against which to evaluate legislation and government decisions; and allowing ministers to appoint and fire their own legal advisers, instead of getting counsel from advisers operating under the Justice Ministry aegis.
Gantz suggested the override clause should be “used only for extreme cases where there is a broad consensus in the legislature” and not just with the planned majority of 61 out of the Knesset’s 120 lawmakers.
“The ball is in Netanyahu’s court — to break the rules of the game or to preserve the State of Israel,” Gantz said.
Shortly after Netanyahu’s right-religious bloc won a Knesset majority in November, Gantz — still in his former position as defense minister — said that he would support an override clause if it specified that a broad consensus was needed, citing a minimum two-thirds majority of lawmakers.
Since it was clear that his coalition would lose power in the aftermath of the November 1 election, Gantz has also said that his National Unity party was holding discussions to evaluate how to create a balanced reform.
The Times of Israel Community.