Justice minister calls for revival of judicial overhaul after IDF soldiers accused of abusing Palestinian detainee

In highly controversial comments, Justice Minister Yariv Levin says that the judicial overhaul agenda to weaken the legal system he tried to steamroll through Knesset before October 7 needs to be brought back and that “foundational change” is needed in the justice system.

Speaking to a conference organized by the hard-right Tekuma Movement, Levin says the need for such change had been made clear in particular in the last few days, in an apparent reference to the arrest of nine IDF reservist soldiers on suspicion of violent sexual abuse against Palestinian terror suspects, a step which spawned violent far-right protests which sought to thwart the legal proceedings.

Far-right activists protest against the detention of nine Israeli reserve soldiers suspected of abusing a Hamas terror suspect, at the Sde Teiman military base near Beersheba, July 29, 2024. (Dudu Greenspan/Flash90)

Levin also says the need for judicial overhaul was especially acute regarding appointments and the need to weaken what he said was the judiciary’s “excess power” over them, apparently referencing vacant spots on the Supreme Court which he refuses to fill since the government lacks a majority on the judicial selection committee.

“The second conclusion which has become sharpened as a result of the war, including the events we witnessed just in the last few days, is the understanding that foundational change is needed in the justice system,” says Levin at the conference in Tel Aviv.

“At this time, it is right to make an effort to act in this field with as broad of agreement as possible, especially regarding everything to do with appointments,” he continues.

“There is no place for trying to forcibly make appointments and decisions while abusing the excess power that the justice system has today.

“This is not democracy, and this is not the required responsibility at a time of war. Many people understand better today the need for deep change in the justice system, and the obligation to open it up to all communities in Israeli society.”

Levin’s judicial overhaul agenda broke open huge schisms in Israeli society and led to massive protests against the government, which along with threats of reserve duty refusal, succeeded in stymieing the most far-reaching parts of his program.

Some critics of the government have pointed to the divisions opened up in Israeli society by the judicial overhaul program as a causative factor behind Hamas’s decision to attack on October 7, and the IDF has revealed that between March and July 2023, four different warning letters were passed by the IDF’s intelligence directorate to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “which showed how Israel’s enemies… viewed the harm to cohesion in the State of Israel and the IDF in particular.”