Gantz: Court hearing ‘a source of pride,’ country must respect ultimate ruling

After the High Court of Justice concludes its hearing on the judicial overhaul’s reasonableness law, National Unity Party head Benny Gantz says the country must respect the justices’ ultimate ruling, whatever it may be, and says the prime minister “must say so clearly, in his own voice.”

Gantz says he continues to support reaching a broad agreement on the country’s “constitutional rules” but vows to “stand strong against any attempt to politicize the justice system or harm the deep principle of democracy.”

He praises the hearing itself as one that “revealed a first-rate source for Israeli pride… a Supreme Court that held a pointed and respectful debate, on an essential and important matter for the character and future of Israel.

“The debate showed us how critical effective judicial oversight is to the decisions made by public representatives,” he said, while also laying bare the dangers of the overhaul in its extreme form, which “could erase the Declaration of Independence, erase its values and principles, diminish our founding document. That is what we are fighting for. Those principles must serve as the basis of agreements between us.”