After backing coalition candidate for judicial panel, Gantz renews call for return to talks

Opposition party head MK Benny Gantz calls on moderate coalition members to push for a return to judicial overhaul negotiations, shortly after his party lent its support to electing an Otzma Yehudit lawmaker to the Judicial Selection Committee.

“I call on all members of the coalition who understand what lies before us to show responsibility and leadership, to make their voices heard, and to do the right thing – to put the interests of the country before the party. Your silence will not absolve you from responsibility,” he says.

Gantz demands the Judicial Selection Committee be convened, saying that holding off until the winter, presumably after the coalition has time to alter the composition of the panel, “means taking tens of thousands of Israelis hostage to the political whims of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and [Justice Minister Yariv] Levin,” he says.

Citizen services will suffer as a consequence, he says, adding: “Tens of thousands waiting for trials and verdicts will continue to wait – because for Netanyahu and Levin, politics is above the citizens.”