Judicial overhaul crisis offers ‘historic constitutional opportunity,’ says leading think tank

The temporary suspension tonight of the coalition’s efforts to overhaul the judicial provides “a historic constitutional opportunity,” says the Israel Democracy Institute, a leading centrist think tank based in Jerusalem.

IDI says in a statement that there is an opportunity for the coalition and the opposition to work on a constitutional framework based on broad consensus.

The framework should include three key principles, says IDI: the entrenchment of basic rights and the commitment to equality in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence; the preservation of the independence of the judicial system and the professional character of judicial appointments; the codification and entrenchment of agreed “rules of the game,” so as to prevent a temporary political majority from altering Israel’s constitutional framework or endangering democratic values.

The think tank urges Israel’s government to “pledge that they will henceforth promote constitutional arrangements only on the basis of consensus.”

“Any attempt to implement such changes unilaterally will endanger the solidarity, security and economic prosperity of all Israelis,” it says.