Former AG Mandelblit: Government’s plan not a reform, it’s regime change

Speaking to Channel 12’s “Uvda” program, former attorney general Avichai Mandelblit says the government’s plan for sweeping changes to the judiciary “is not a reform. Call it, you name it — a revolution, regime change.”

On his decision to speak out against the government now, Mandelblit says “I can’t be silent.”

Saying the plan upends the Declaration of Independence, Mandelblit says: “If there is no independent judiciary, it’s over. It’s a different system of government.”

Under that new system, he argues, “the human rights of minorities the government doesn’t like will be harmed significantly and severely… There will be oppression.”

He dismisses Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s insistence that the overhaul will strengthen democracy as “empty words.”

“The ruler will decide. He’ll have prosecutors of his own, legal counsels of his own, judges of his own. And if these people have personal loyalty to him, there is no supremacy of the law.

“This is a sinkhole. We’ll all be swallowed up by this. Where are you taking us? Where are you leading us?”

In quotes aired from the interview earlier in the day, Mandelblit said he believed Netanyahu was supporting the drastic shakeup in order to bring a premature end to his ongoing criminal trial.

Mandelblit also says he’s very worried about growing threats against judicial officials who oppose the government’s efforts.

“I think things are going in a bad direction… It will get worse, we’re only at the start… Someone will play the price in blood.”