ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 475
The Times of Israel liveblogged Tuesday’s events as they happened.
Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning, who is known as one of the most pro-Israel lawmakers in her party offers rare criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
“There are also concerns about what this far-right government is doing and the hurdles they are creating to a two-state solution,” Manning says during a webinar hosted by the Jewish Federations of North America.
“Any discussion about what’s going on in Israel should not only include what’s happening with the judicial reforms but also what’s happening in the West Bank and [what] is being pushed by the far-right wing of the current Israeli government.”
Recent months have seen record-setting settlement approvals by the Netanyahu government along with the establishment of new illegal outposts and upticks in deadly settler violence, which has gone largely unchecked.
The comments from Manning — who previously served as JFNA board chair — appear particularly noteworthy, given that she to date has all but refrained from publicly criticizing successive Israeli governments.
Manning also describes the pride she felt last week watching President Isaac Herzog give an address to a joint session of Congress and expresses for his until now failed efforts to negotiate a compromise on judicial reform.
Manning says she had been in touch with Israeli lawmakers ahead of yesterday’s passing of the overhaul bill removing judicial oversight over the reasonableness of governmental and ministerial decisions and that she “had been assured that there were enormous efforts to build a compromise and not push things forwards.”
“What we saw yesterday was that the idea of building consensus and moving slowly was cut short,” Manning laments.
A controversial bill to expand admissions committees into larger Israeli towns passed into law this evening with broad support from legislators across the board.
Admissions committees are panels that screen potential residents in Israeli localities and operate with full discretion as to who they accept or reject to live in a given town. The committees can reject candidates due to their ostensible lack of compatibility with the “sociocultural fabric” of a community.
Sponsored by right-wing MKs Simcha Rothman, Sharren Haskel, and Yitzhak Kreuzer, the bill passed its third reading in a 42-11 vote. All present Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am MKs, in addition to Labor MKs Gilad Kariv and Naama Lazimi, voted against the bill.
Criticized by human rights organizations as a form of housing discrimination against Israel’s Arab citizens, admissions committees have existed in Israel for decades on kibbutzim, moshavim and other “cooperative localities,” however the Knesset only formalized their role in 2011.
The 2011 law stipulated that only localities in the Negev and the Galilee with less than 400 permanent homes could operate admissions committees. This law increases that number to 700 permanent homes.
“We are strengthening the periphery, we are strengthening the State of Israel,” tweeted Otzma Yehudit’s Kreuzer after the law’s passing. “We promised, we held to it.”
Hadash MK Ofer Cassif claimed during the bill’s Knesset debate that in addition to excluding Arab citizens, expanding admissions committees to more towns across the country will harm Mizrahi and Ethiopian Jews, and other disadvantaged groups in Israel.
US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel says the Biden administration will not cut aid to Israel in response to Jerusalem’s passing of the first piece of legislation from a legislative package aimed at overhauling the judiciary.
“There is not going to be any cut or stoppage of military aid, and that is because our commitment to Israel and our commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad. Our decades-long partnership with Israel is ironclad,” Patel says.
While Hebrew media has quickly begun playing up the comments, the prospect of the US conditioning aid to Israel was never on the table to begin with and US President Joe Biden campaigned on the notion that he would not consider such a step. US officials have repeatedly reiterated this stance since Israel’s general elections in November.
Patel adds that the refusal to cut US aid to Israel does not take away from the administration’s stance against the overhaul bill passed yesterday, as it did not have the broad support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly assured the US he would secure for such a fundamental change.
Several senior scientists on the Israel Atomic Energy Commission are considering resigning to protest the judicial overhaul, Channel 13 news reports, a day after the government passed the first piece of legislation in its plans to weaken the judiciary.
The network described the scientists as among several dozen experts who are “responsible for the development of Israel’s nuclear capability,” referring to foreign reports about the Jewish state’s nuclear weapons arsenal.
The report, which did not cite sources, stressed there was no collective action, with the scientists deciding for themselves how they will act. It added that the scientists were still deliberating the matter with each other and their predecessors, along with “heads of the scientific-military community,” but have not raised it with any superiors.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stresses to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that “Israel is a strong democracy and will remain so in the future,” according to the Israeli statement on their phone call.
Gallant’s office says the two discussed “regional challenges and the state of the IDF’s readiness,” with the defense minister stressing “his chief mission, together with the heads of the security establishment, is to unite the ranks and maintain the IDF’s readiness due to the many security challenges.”
The chief of the United States Central Command arrived in Israel earlier today for a series of meetings with Israel Defense Forces officials, the Israeli military says.
The IDF says Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla will meet with Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi tomorrow for an assessment on the region and to discuss cooperation between the countries.
Also tomorrow, Kurilla will visit the Military Intelligence Directorate, the IDF says.
Kurilla frequently comes to Israel, last visiting in May.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says securing “broad consensus through political dialogue” is a “critical element of a resilient democracy,” in the latest remarks from a Biden administration official following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition’s passing of the first piece of legislation from its judicial overhaul.
The message was passed along by Austin during a call with Gallant earlier today, according to a US readout.
Austin “also expressed concern regarding the urgent need for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take meaningful steps to ensure stability in the West Bank,” the US readout states.
Netanyahu’s cabinet last month passed a decision that principally backs efforts to prevent the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, but has yet to implement any specific actions and has advanced a record amount of settlement construction that critics say significantly weakens the PA.
“Austin called for Palestinian leaders to condemn terrorism and take active steps to prevent violence. He urged Minister Gallant to address extremist settler violence against Palestinian civilians and continue the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s efforts to improve economic opportunities for Palestinians in the West Bank,” the Department of Defense says.
Labor party chief Merav Michaeli calls on President Isaac Herzog not to ratify the Reasonableness Law passed by the coalition yesterday until the High Court of Justice weighs in on petitions against the legislation.
“Don’t lend a hand to this unilateral, destructive and undemocratic move,” she says. “Give the State of Israel a chance.”
The president’s signing of laws is a technical step before they take effect. No president has ever refused to sign a law approved by the Knesset, and a constitutional scholar told The Times of Israel earlier this year that such a refusal would likely not matter.
PITTSBURGH — Lawyers for the gunman who killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue request a court order to exhume the body of his long-dead father.
Robert Bowers’ lawyers want the body exhumed for a DNA test after federal prosecutors raised questions about paternity during the penalty phase of Bowers’ trial for the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue.
Bowers, a 50-year-old truck driver from suburban Baldwin, was convicted in June on 63 criminal counts in the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack. A federal jury has to decide whether to sentence him to death or life in prison without parole.
The defense, trying to show that Bowers has a family history of mental illness, has introduced evidence that his father, Randall Bowers, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The defense asserts Robert Bowers also has schizophrenia and opened fire at the synagogue out of a delusional belief that Jews were helping to commit a genocide against white people.
Randall Bowers died by suicide in 1979 on the eve of his own rape trial. At trial last week, prosecutors sought to cast doubt on whether he was Robert Bowers’ biological father. The defense asks a judge today to clear up the matter by ordering the exhumation of Randall Bowers’ body.
Credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service warns about “significant risk” of heightened political and social tensions in Israel following the passage of the first law of the government’s contested judicial overhaul, which are likely to carry “negative consequences for Israel’s economy and security situation.”
“Attempts to reach a compromise with the opposition have failed… the bill’s approval comes amid widespread protests by civil society groups that have been ongoing since January and which we expect will continue,” Moody’s notes in a new report.
“Petitions against the bill have been lodged with the Supreme Court, raising the risk of a constitutional crisis between the executive and judiciary,” it adds.
Moody’s also warns that some of its earlier concerns regarding the proposed reforms’ impact on Israel’s economy are starting to materialize.
For now, the credit rating agency keeps Israel’s credit outlook at “stable” after cutting it from “positive” in April, citing a “deterioration of Israel’s governance” and upheaval over the government’s bid to dramatically overhaul the judiciary.
Global credit rating agencies, including Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have until now held off rating downgrades as the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu has expressed that it would make every effort to reach a broad agreement or some form of consensus with the opposition and will not advance unilateral legislation on the judicial overhaul.
Israeli shares continued to take a dive today and the shekel weakened for a second day amid market concern that international rating agencies are likely to change the country’s credit outlook.
“Venture capital investments in Israeli high-tech firms have declined materially, with the sector raising $3.7 billion in the first six months of the year, the lowest figure since 2019,” Moody’s cautions. “While the slowdown reflects global trends in the sector triggered by tighter financing conditions and a degree of normalization after the pandemic, there are also signs that Israel is decoupling from global trends.”
ATHENS, Greece — Two Greek air force pilots died today when their Canadair water-bombing plane crashed while battling a forest fire on the island of Evia, the defense ministry says.
“A three-day mourning period is declared in the Armed Forces for the loss of life, in the line of duty, of the Air Force officers and pilots of the firefighting aircraft CL-215, which was operating in Evia,” the Greek defense ministry says in a statement.
Military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari warns that if reservist troops don’t show up for duty over a lengthy period of time, the Israel Defense Forces’ readiness will be harmed.
“At the current point in time, the IDF is competent. There was an increase in requests to end reserve service, and alongside this, there is a dialogue between commanders and servicemembers,” Hagari tells reporters.
“If reservists do not report for a long time, there will be damage to the army’s competence. This is a gradual process that will be affected according to the reporting for duty of the reservists,” he adds.
More than 10,000 reservists have announced their intention to end their voluntary reserve duty in protest of the government’s judicial overhaul.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition hits out at Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara for opposing a law aimed at preventing the Supreme Court from ordering the premier’s recusal if the violates a conflict of interest arrangement related to his corruption trial.
In a joint statement sent out by a spokesperson for Justice Minister Yariv Levin, coalition faction leaders accuse Baharav-Miara of “another attempt to annul the democratic choice” of Israeli voters.
“In a democracy, only the citizens will choose who will be prime minister,” they say.
They also deny any link between the government’s push to weaken the judicial system and Netanyahu’s trial.
Ahead of an expected Moody’s report later today and as major financial institutions issue warnings over Israel’s economic outlook, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich issue a joint statement insisting the economy is as healthy as ever.
“This is a temporary response. When the dust clears it will become clear that Israel’s economy is very strong,” they say.
“The Israeli economy is based on solid foundations and will continue to grow under an experienced leadership that is leading a responsible economy policy,” they add.
WASHINGTON — A Russian fighter jet flew within a few meters of a US drone over Syria and fired flares at it, striking the American aircraft and damaging it, the US military says, the latest in a string of aggressive intercepts by Russia in the region.
A senior Air Force commander says the move on Sunday was an attempt by the Russians to knock the MQ-9 Reaper drone out of the sky and came just a week after a Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to a US surveillance aircraft carrying a crew in the region, jeopardizing the lives of the four Americans on board.
“One of the Russian flares struck the US MQ-9, severely damaging its propeller,” Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, the head of US Air Forces Central, says in a statement describing the latest close call. “We call upon the Russian forces in Syria to put an immediate end to this reckless, unprovoked, and unprofessional behavior.”
Grynkewich says one of the crew members operating the drone remotely kept it in the air and flew it back to its home base.
The Sunday incident is the latest in a series of encounters between Russian fighter jets and US aircraft flying over Syria. In all but the one instance a week ago, the US aircraft were MQ-9 drones without crew members. On that Sunday, however, the Russian Su-35 jet flew close to a US MC-12 surveillance aircraft with a crew, forcing it to go through a turbulent wake.
Military chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi issues a rare video statement calling for unity within the Israel Defense Forces, amid national tensions over the government’s controversial judicial overhaul.
“Yesterday was a day of peak intensity in the controversy in Israeli society,” Chief of Staff Halevi says in the pre-recorded statement, referring to the first major bill of the government’s judicial overhaul plan passing.
“In the midst of this turmoil, the IDF has the great responsibility of protecting the State of Israel and its citizens,” he continues.
“Days of controversy and crisis require emphasizing the shared and the unifying [tasks]… defending the country is our deep commitment,” Halevi says.
Halevi continues to say that the IDF is “ready for any challenge, this is our imperative to assure the existence of the state.”
“The IDF’s protective force is made up of every soldier, every commander, in the reserve and standing army, who work together for a common goal,” he says.
“We must embrace the reservists who are very dear to us, whose contribution to the security of the country is great. Even those who made a decision with a heavy heart not to report for duty, the IDF needs you,” Halevi says, referring to over 10,000 reservists who have threatened to end their volunteer duty in protest of the judicial overhaul.
“Only together will we protect [the country]. We will train, prepare and do it together. We will choose to stand strong in the face of the challenges of this complex time. We have a lot of responsibility,” Halevi adds.
The IDF says that the “cohesion,” or unity of the IDF has already been harmed amid the protests against the overhaul, and it will take time to fix.
The military says it is still fully battle-ready, but harm to the IDF’s readiness is already beginning. Should the thousands of reservists in key positions continue to not show up, actual damage to the IDF’s “competence” may occur within weeks.
There have been at least two isolated cases of reservists not showing up for duty when ordered to. One was handed a fine and the other was given a suspended jail sentence.
Reservists not showing up for volunteer service have not faced any disciplinary action, rather, their commanders have just attempted to convince them to show up.
The UK Foreign Office issues a statement in response to the Israeli government’s passage of the first law relating to the judicial overhaul, stressing that London’s ties with Jerusalem have “always been underpinned by our shared democratic values.”
“While Israel’s exact constitutional arrangements are a matter for Israelis, we urge the Israeli government to build consensus and avoid division, ensuring that a robust system of checks and balances and the independence of Israel’s judiciary are preserved,” a ministry spokesperson says in a statement.
In an update on the judicial overhaul, Citi warns of a “much more tricky and dangerous” environment after the government passed a bill blocking courts from exercising judicial review over the “reasonableness” of its decisions, counseling investors to hold off until the dust settles.
Michael Wiesen, a vice president at the US bank, outlines a scenario in which Israel faces a “constitutional crisis,” noting the High Court petitions filed against the legislation.
“If they decide to debate it and strike it down, we could find ourselves in a constitutional crisis should the government decide to ignore their ruling,” he writes. “However given this has been passed as a ‘Basic Law,’ it’s not very likely the court will seek to strike it down.”
He also refers to speculation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government could fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, amid growing calls by coalition figures to can her.
“This however would be a dangerous move given the fierce reactions from markets as well as international voices, most probably rating agencies,” Wiesen says.
TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian authorities have arrested several followers of the Baha’i faith accused of spying for Tehran’s arch-foe Israel, local media in the Islamic Republic reports today.
The Bahais, Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, are not recognized by the state and often targeted over alleged ties to Israel — home to their most important shrines and world headquarters.
“A number of members at the core of the Baha’i spy party have been arrested in Gilan province” in Iran’s north, says Fars news agency, citing an intelligence services statement.
Fars reports the group was alleged to have links “with the Zionist center known as Bayt al-Adl located in the occupied Palestinian territories,” referring to the Baha’is’ Universal House of Justice in the coastal Israeli city of Haifa.
The report doesn’t specify how many had been arrested.
The intelligence services also accuse the group of “promoting Baha’i teachings” particularly among children, according to Fars.
Iran, where Shiite Islam is the state religion, recognizes some minority faiths including Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism.
Baha’is, however, are branded “heretics” by the Islamic Republic.
In August, authorities arrested a group of Baha’is and 12 more followers the following month, all on similar charges relating to alleged links to Israel.
Baha’is consider Bahaullah, born in 1817 in modern-day Iran, to be the latest prophet sent by God and founder of their monotheistic faith.
The group has complained of discrimination in Iran since the emergence of their faith in the second half of the 19th century, well before the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The Baha’i community claims to have more than seven million followers worldwide, including some 300,000 in Iran.
The military wing of the Hamas terror group claims responsibility for an attack on Israeli forces near the northern West Bank city of Nablus this morning.
In a statement, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades says the three slain gunmen — Noureddine Tayseer al-Ardah, 32, Montaser Bahjat Ali Salameh, 33, and Saad Maher al-Kharraz, 43 — were members.
Al-Qassam says it honors the trio who carried out the attack at the entrance to a small Samaritan community, calling them “fighters” and “heroes of the heroic Nablus operation.”
No soldiers were hurt in the attack.
Israel has finalized a free trade agreement with Vietnam, the Prime Minister’s Office announces.
The deal was signed by Economy Minister Nir Barkat and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Hong Dien at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang.
The Prime Minister’s Office says the agreement, which was signed thirty years after Jerusalem and Hanoi established diplomatic ties, includes a reduction of customs duties and will make it easier for Israeli firms to do business in Vietnam.
“I expect to expand our relations on innovation in all areas in which we can improve the lives of citizens in both countries,” Netanyahu is quoted saying in a statement from his office. “The cooperation between us opens new horizons.”
Morgan Stanley downgrades Israel’s sovereign credit to a “dislike stance,” after the government passed the first piece of judicial overhaul legislation.
“We see increased uncertainty about the economic outlook in the coming months and risks becoming skewed to our adverse scenario,” says a research note by analysts at the US investment bank, according to Reuters.
“Markets are now likely to extrapolate the future policy path and we move Israel sovereign credit to a ‘dislike stance.'”
The research note comes as Moody’s, one of the “Big Three” credit rating agencies, is due to issue a special report on Israel later today, and as Israeli stocks and the shekel continue to shed value since the coalition yesterday approved the Reasonableness Law in a vote boycotted by the opposition.
ATHENS, Greece — A firefighting plane crashed in Greece during a mission on the island of Evia, a fire service spokesperson tells AFP.
“A Greek Canadair plane with at least two people on board crashed near Platanisto,” a village in Evia, spokesman Yannis Artopios says.
Wildfires have been raging in Greece amid scorching temperatures, forcing mass evacuations in several tourist spots including on the islands of Rhodes and Corfu.
BREAKING: Plane fighting wildfires in Evia has crashed in #Greece pic.twitter.com/e8N47uTTiB
— Insider Corner (@insidercnews) July 25, 2023
In an unusual move, Moody’s is expected to issue a report later today on Israel following the passage of the first bill in the coalition’s judicial overhaul, according to Hebrew media outlets.
Earlier this year, Moody’s downgraded Israel’s credit outlook to “stable,” citing concern about the legislation’s impact on the independence of the judiciary.
A labor court issues a ruling ordering the country’s medical workers to immediately return to work and halt a one-day strike they’re staging in protest of the passage a day earlier of the government’s first judicial overhaul law.
However, the decision isn’t set to make a difference regarding outpatient health clinics since it’s issued shortly before most of them would have ended their workday anyway, and since most appointments had already been canceled.
Last night, the Israel Medical Association (IMA) announced the general strike in the healthcare system for today, in response to the Knesset’s passage of the “reasonableness” law.
The strike saw the healthcare system operate on a limited Sabbath and holiday schedule. However, emergency rooms of general and psychiatric hospitals operated as usual, as did community clinics in Jerusalem and its surroundings, “due to the large number of people in the area and the complex situation there.”
This morning, Health Minister Moshe Arbel and professionals in his ministry applied for an injunction to prevent “this last-minute wild strike that will unjustly hurt thousands of patients.”
Hours later, Arbel appealed to the IMA to agree to end the strike at 1 p.m., but it refused.
Then, shortly before 3 p.m., the Bat Yam Labor Court accepted Arbel’s request for an injunction, writing: “We believe a protest strike of two hours is sufficient to execute the right to protest, but not beyond that.
“In practice, the strike has been going on for over seven hours,” it added. “We are ordering an immediate return to work for all healthcare services that were on strike today to reduce the harm to patients as much as possible.”
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara sides against the government in response to a High Court petition against a law passed by the coalition in March banning the court from ordering a prime minister to recuse himself from office, requesting the legislation be struck down.
Baharav-Miara argues in a filing with the High Court of Justice that the Knesset misused its authority to improve Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal position while he’s on trial for graft charges and sought “allow him to operate in contravention of court rulings.”
The Movement for Quality Government, which filed the petition against the law, says the attorney general’s position essentially adopts its claims and that her submission “reminds the government that the rule of law applies to those who rule.”
Baharav-Miara’s filing once again puts her at odds with the government and Netanyahu, with whom she has clashed on numerous occasions over government legislation and decisions.
The law, an amendment to Basic Law: The Government, was passed due to a concern by Netanyahu and the coalition that the High Court would order him to recuse himself due to conflicts of interest relating to his ongoing trial and the judicial overhaul legislation he and his government are advancing.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother questions the mental state of US President Joe Biden, who has been a vocal critic of the the government’s judicial overhaul.
Speaking with the Kan public broadcaster, Iddo Netanyahu says he believes senior American officials such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken know the details of the coalition’s plans to weaken the judiciary, but not Biden.
“I do not know what kind of mental state he’s in,” Netanyahu says.
He also claims the Biden administration is using the judicial shakeup as an “excuse” not to invite his brother to the White House.
Netanyahu later seeks to walk back the remarks, saying he “did not express himself successfully.”
“I don’t cast any doubt on President Biden’s [mental] situation or that he’s a great friend of Israel,” he says.
Opening today’s meeting of the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, the panel’s chair Simcha Rothman says the upcoming Knesset recess can be an opportunity to reduce tensions, ahead of a winter session that is expected to be packed with judicial overhaul legislation.
“Yesterday’s events are important, and we should all take advantage of the recess to calm things down, take time to relax and think about how to continue and reach discussions and agreements regarding the future,” says Rothman, a member of the far-right Religious Zionism party.
The committee head, whom opposition figures have accused of running the panel with an iron fist and shutting down avenues of debate, seems to accuse the opposition of pigheadedness ahead of yesterday’s final votes to pass the coalition’s first judicial overhaul law.
“If there is one lesson that is important for us all to learn, it is that when you shout, it is difficult to listen. It is possible and necessary to conduct dialogue and discussion, as we have been able to do in many other laws, and hopefully also in the law that is placed before us, with fewer superlatives and less shouting. We will all benefit from this,” Rothman says.
Labor MK Gilad Kariv, Rothman’s predecessor as committee leader, slaps back sarcastically.
“You are truly a role model for difficult inclusion and trust. Maybe we will gather for a workshop with an emphasis on the field of morality,” he says. “We need to do some soul-searching in the opposition.”
RHODES, Greece — A third successive heat wave in Greece pushes temperatures back above 40 C (104 F) across parts of the country, following more nighttime evacuations from fires that have raged out of control for days.
The latest evacuations orders were issued on the islands of Corfu and Evia, while a blaze on the island of Rhodes continues to move inland, torching mountainous forest areas, including part of a nature reserve.
Desperate residents, many with wet towels around their necks to stave off the scorching heat, use shovels to beat back flames approaching their homes, while firefighting planes and helicopters resumed water drops at first light.
Authorities say that more than 20,000 people have been involved in successive evacuations on the island, mostly tourists over the weekend, when fire swept through two coastal areas on the southeast of Rhodes.
The European Union has sent 500 firefighters, 100 vehicles and seven planes from 10 member states, while Turkey, Israel, Egypt and other countries have also sent help.
“For the 12th day, under extreme conditions of heat and strong winds, we are fighting nonstop on dozens of forest fire fronts … The Greek Fire Service has battled more than 500 fires — more than 50 a day,” says Vassilis Kikilias, the minister for climate crisis and civil protection.
In Athens, authorities resume afternoon closing hours at the ancient Acropolis, as part of broader measures to cope with the high heat.
EU officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires across the European continent, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017.
Following yesterday’s declines after the coalition passed the first law in its planned judicial overhaul, both Israeli stocks and the shekel continue to fall.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s benchmark TA-125 index is down by 2.5% on the day while the shekel further weakens against the US dollar, falling to NIS 3.71 after starting the day at NIS 3.62.
Yesh Atid and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel (MQG) watchdog group file petitions to the High Court of Justice demanding it order Justice Minister Yariv Levin to explain why he is refusing to convene the Judicial Selection Committee.
The petitions, if accepted, could see the High Court order Levin to assemble the highly sensitive committee, despite his intention to pass legislation to change its composition in order to give the government greater control of the judicial selection process.
The Yesh Atid petition requests the court accept its position on the basis that Levin “lacks the authority” to decide not to convene the critical committee, which selects all judges in Israel.
The petition argues that the decision is also “unreasonable in the extreme,” but says that since the coalition passed its highly controversial law yesterday banning the court from using the judicial tool of reasonableness to review ministerial decisions, Yesh Atid has focused its legal reasoning regarding the failure to convene the committee on the judicial doctrine of lack of authority.
Yesh Atid’s petition claims that Levin’s refusal to convene the committee represents “a blatant violation of the duty of trustworthiness and fairness incumbent upon the respondents,” and does so through the use of “inappropriate considerations rooted in the desire of the justice minister to prevent the regular activity of this very important committee.”
One of Levin’s central goals in the judicial overhaul agenda he drew up is to give the government greater control over the process of selecting judges. The government would not have full control of the Judicial Selection Committee were it to be convened now.
MQG’s petition makes similar claims, basing its demand on the judicial doctrine of “abuse of authority” which it says Levin is engaging in for the sake of “his personal and political considerations.”
Both Yesh Atid and MQG’s petitions point out that there are currently several dozen empty judicial positions and that the courts are over-burdened by cases.
