Former AG: Coalition’s bill is a ‘coup,’ would ‘crush’ judiciary and cause ‘tyranny’

20 July 2023, 2:42 pm 4 Edit

Former attorney general Avichai Mandelblit attends a conference organized by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), in Tel Aviv, on December 28, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Former attorney general Avichai Mandelblit says the coalition’s bill to cancel the judicial “reasonableness” test for politicians’ decisions, if passed, would “crush” the country’s top court and constitute “a full-blown regime coup.”

At an “emergency conference” held by the Israel Bar Association, Mandelblit says the bill’s “purpose is to crush the independence of the entire justice system,” apparently meaning it will be followed by other overhaul bills.

But even on its own, he argues, the reasonableness bill “will crush Israeli democracy’s last line of defense — the Supreme Court.”

He says this “could lead to tyranny, without any balance or defense, and therefore this in itself is a full-blown regime coup.”