From the Liveblog of
Monday, October 23, 2017
Opening Knesset, Rivlin warns of attempts to weaken Israeli democracy
Speaking at the opening of the Knesset winter session, President Reuven Rivlin launches a passionate defense of the judicial system and the media against what he calls a “coup” from the government to weaken them.
“The Knesset is the representative of the sovereign, the people of Israel, the entire people of Israel. In this house we must remember that it is the people we must live up to. This wonderful people who we have been privileged to serve and represent,” he says.
Slamming legislative efforts to “weaken the Supreme Court” and “silence the free media,” Rivlin likens attempts to the “judicial revolution” of chief justice Aharon Barak in 1996.
“About a decade ago I stood before one of the giants of Israeli law, Aharon Barak, and warned that the announcement of the constitutional revolution was actually a declaration of a coup. I said to him then, and I quote: ‘Any definition that changes the balance [of the branches of government], any act that expresses or even symbolizes stepping into the territory of another branch creates a reality of ‘chaotic democracy,’ of systemic and dangerous chaos,” Rivlin says.
“Today, some three decades after the announcement of that ‘constitutional revolution,’ I would like to point out what I believe to be the counter-movement of the historical pendulum, in what seems to be a decision of the top echelons to tip the balance,” he adds.
He calls on MKs to end “what appears to be an ongoing attempt to weaken the gatekeepers of Israeli democracy.”
— Raoul Wootliff
