Knesset panel approves legislation that would give government control over selection of judges

Amid chaotic scenes and furious denunciations by opposition MKs, the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approves for its first reading in the Knesset plenum the first part of the government’s radical overhaul of the judiciary giving the government full control over the Judicial Selection Committee.

The legislation is being passed as an amendment to the Basic Law: Judiciary. It will give the coalition five of the panel’s nine members, with a simple majority needed to appoint judges to all courts in Israel.

Several opposition MKs remonstrate ferociously with committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman over the bill. MK Yorai Lahav Hertzanu gets up on the committee table. MK Vladimir Beliak sits on the committee floor in front of Rothman.

As the vote is held, Labor’s Gilad Kariv accuses Rothman of showing contempt for the president, and for the committee.

“You’ve prevented MKs from speaking today,” Kariv shouts at Rothman. “You shame this House.”

Some 20 MKs are ejected during the uproar, mostly from the opposition.

And chaos reigns outside the committee room as well. Kariv yells at Knesset orderlies for ejecting a parliamentary aide from the building and physically hauls her back inside.

The bill is approved by nine votes to seven for passage to the Knesset plenum for its first reading. If and when it is approved in the plenum, the legislation would return to the committee for preparation for its second and third readings and passage into law.