Gantz lays out conditions for talks with government on judicial overhaul

National Unity party leader Benny Gantz spells out his conditions for dialogue on the government’s judicial overhaul plans, repeating an offer to negotiate repeatedly rebuffed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Speaking at the start of his party’s Knesset faction meeting, Gantz says that the current rapid legislative process must be paused, that discussion should include “promoting comprehensive legislation and Basic Law legislation, with an emphasis on assistance to citizens,” and a pledge to “oppose the politicization of the choice of gatekeepers and judges.”

“There can’t be a situation in which one committee is fomenting a coup, while alongside it there is a ‘cosmetic committee’ holding idle discussions in order to silence the protests,” Gantz adds.

Gantz, who has previously suggested creating a cross-Knesset working group to shape judicial reform, is alone within the opposition in making such an offer. While Yisrael Beytenu’s and Labor’s leaders completely reject talks, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid has requested that President Isaac Herzog form an impartial panel on the matter.