Court override, bill to allow Deri as minister up for preliminary reading in Knesset

Legislation to enable Shas leader Aryeh Deri to be re-appointed as a government minister will be brought for a preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday and is very likely to pass.

Last month, the High Court of Justice ruled that Deri’s appointment as interior and health minister was invalid and ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire him, which the premier reluctantly did.

The bill to enable Deri to return to ministerial office is an amendment to the existing Basic Law: The Government, and inserts a clause into the statute stipulating that no court will be able to exercise judicial review over the appointment of cabinet ministers or be able to remove them from office.

In addition to the Deri law, a private members bill submitted by Religious Zionism MK and Chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Simcha Rothman to enact legislation that the High Court of Justice cannot strike down will also come to a preliminary vote.

According to Rothman’s draft bill, which would be passed as Basic Law: Override, the Knesset could legislate any law with a “notwithstanding clause,” which stipulates that the law would be considered valid even if it contravenes a Basic Law.

The legislation would also require that all 15 justices of the High Court rule unanimously to strike down a piece of legislation that was not made immune to judicial review.

Rothman is currently preparing a very similar version of this legislation in his committee but is advancing it as a private members bill as well.