1,000 senior Likud party members sign petition backing judicial overhaul

In their first public statement after 10 weeks of protest, more than 1,000 senior Likud party members sign a petition backing the coalition’s judicial overhaul plan.

The petition calls the proposal to increase political power at the expense of the judiciary “a historic opportunity to restore the broken balance” among governance branches.

The signatories are members of the Likud’s nearly 4,000-member Central Committee, which plays a role in internal party decision-making, as well as party branch heads.

During a sweeping protest bringing tens of thousands of Israelis to the street today to demonstrate against the coalition’s efforts, the petition calls for the overhaul to continue.

Yesterday, Justice Minister Yariv Levin met with a team developing a potential framework to soften the reform. A think tank and leading scholars sharply criticized the framework, saying it adopts almost all of the government’s proposals and would severely damage Israel’s democratic character.