Netanyahu reportedly considering moderating ‘reasonableness’ bill on curtailing judicial oversight
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly evaluating the possibility of moderating his coalition’s controversial bill to severely limit the courts’ use of the reasonableness standard to review government and ministerial decisions, even as the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee works to prepare the current text of the bill for passage to the Knesset plenum.
Netanyahu is consulting with close associates, legal scholars and officials from the President’s Residence over the possibility of allowing the courts to use the reasonableness standard to review decisions made by individual government ministers, while preserving the bill’s ban on using reasonableness to review decisions made by the full cabinet, according to a report by Kan News.
A clause could also be added explicitly requiring ministers to act with reasonableness, Kan reported.
Opposition MKs are not currently involved in discussions with Netanyahu over such a compromise.
Earlier, Knesset Constitution Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman said the coalition would be “very pleased” to amend the bill in coordination with the opposition, but alleged that the opposition “behaved with a lack of good faith and a total refusal to come to agreements.”
Opposition MKs have in turn accused Rothman of merely creating the impression of a substantive debate in the committee while being unwilling to compromise at all on the bill, pointing out that he has failed to implement the recommendations even of conservative jurists who addressed the committee.
President Isaac Herzog releases a statement Tuesday afternoon saying he welcomed “every effort to reach broad agreements,” and emphasizes a call for dialogue.
“If only one side wins, the country loses,” says the president.