Opposition faction leader praises Supreme Court president’s defiance

Zionist Union faction chairman Avi Gabbay praises Supreme Court Chief Justice Hayut for her public comments slamming the bill that aims to rein in the power of her institution to strike down Knesset legislation as unconstitutional.

“We must praise Hayut for her words, for not backing down and not cowering to the efforts to silence her and the court,” Gabbay says at the opening to his faction’s weekly meeting in the Knesset.

“This is an assassination attempt against the Supreme Court, against freedom and against Israeli democracy,” he says of the bill authorized by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation yesterday.

Gabbay also praises the coalition’s Kulanu party leader Moshe Kahlon for vowing to oppose the bill in the Knesset and for “standing up to the extremists in the government.”

— Raoul Wootliff