Knesset panel chair says he’s unwilling to change essentials of ‘reasonableness’ bill
Hours after first vote, Rothman reconvenes panel on bill to nix judicial oversight tool; claims it will only apply to cabinet and ministers despite its mention of ‘other officials’
Carrie Keller-Lynn is a former political and legal correspondent for The Times of Israel
A key coalition lawmaker responsible for advancing a controversial bill to block judicial review of the “reasonableness” of elected officials’ decisions said Tuesday 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, hours after the Knesset approved the bill overnight in its first plenum vote.
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.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously ordered Rothman and Justice Minister Yariv Levin to soften the bill’s language and application, in part to make it explicit that the elimination of the judicial “reasonableness” test would only apply to ministers and the cabinet but not mayors and other municipal officials.
According to the bill’s text, courts would be blocked from invalidating or even discussing decisions made by the cabinet, ministers or unspecified “other elected officials, as set by law,” on the basis of their reasonableness.
An amendment to the Basic Law: The Judiciary, the (52-word Hebrew) text reads in full: “Notwithstanding what is stated in this basic law, whoever has judicial authority, according to the law, including the Supreme Court, will not deliberate on, and will not give an order against the government, the prime minister, government ministers, or other elected officials as will be defined in law, regarding the reasonableness of their decisions.”
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 halls.
“I looked for mayors in the bill and I couldn’t find them,” Rothman chided an opposition member on the committee, receiving cries of “Elected officials!” in response — a reference to the text of the bill.
Rothman said that was simply “interpretation” and reiterated that he was “very determined to not remove people from the law that are not [included] in the law.”
One of the coalition’s chief champions of the planned judicial overhaul, Rothman said that he is unwilling to remove the bill’s “other elected officials” language because this could slow down the legislative process, should the Knesset later decide to expand its scope.
Under his reasoning, if the clause were removed, the Knesset would be required to pass another amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary — one of Israel’s quasi-constitutional laws — to shield other politicians from scrutiny. But if passed in its current form, the Knesset could later approve regular legislation — easier to pass than Basic Law amendments — expanding its scope.
Committee legal adviser Gur Bligh voiced support for Rothman’s latter point, saying that “for the reasonableness test not to apply to another elected official, there is a need to pass another law.”
Islamist Arab party leader MK Mansour Abbas told the Constitution Committee that the standard of “reasonableness” is an important tool for Arab Israelis in demanding their rights via the court system.
Abbas said authorities have delayed announcing steps to address surging violent crime in Arab communities and that the reasonableness test is “a line of defense against these destructive decisions.”
He added that the bill in its current form makes Arabs feel abandoned by the state and urged the committee to drop the legislation.
Appearing before the panel, opposition leader Yair Lapid offered broader criticism, saying that providing politicians a shield against the reasonableness test will hurt the economy and make the country “weaker, poorer and more divided.”
“Every citizen will feel it in their pocket,” he said.
On the diplomatic front, the Yesh Atid party head said, the approval of the legislation “will isolate us, it will enter us into a club of states that the world backed away from.”
Lapid invoked the destruction of the Second Temple 2,000 years ago, which is mourned on the fast day of Tisha B’Av in two weeks.
“The true lesson of the tale of the destruction, the final days, is that extremists never see or want to see the consequences of their actions,” he said, referring to the infighting among Jews at the time, which is traditionally said to be the reason for the Temple’s destruction.
The Times of Israel Community.