Religious Zionism launches plans for more radical judicial overhaul after election

The far-right Religious Zionism party publishes a campaign platform calling for a reform of the court system that would be even more radical than the judicial overhaul the coalition pursued in its current term, including a clause that would enable the Knesset to reinstate legislation that was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.

The outgoing government also initially proposed such legislation, but it failed to pass in the face of massive public protests that dominated Israeli political and societal discourse for much of 2023. It has been strongly criticized by many constitutional scholars who have said it would essentially eliminate the court’s power of judicial review over legislation.

Religious Zionism chair Bezalel Smotrich says that the wide raft of far-reaching reforms is needed because Israel is at a “fateful juncture.” He notes that during the term of the next government, some 10 new Supreme Court justices are due to be appointed, which necessitates a “change [to] the rules of the game.”

Religious Zionism’s reforms would also “restore limits on the right of standing,” likely meaning that civil rights groups and government watchdog groups, many of whom are opposed to Religious Zionism’s policies, would be more limited in when and how they could file petitions to the Supreme Court.

Smotrich and party lawmaker Simcha Rothman, one of the leading proponents of the judicial overhaul, say they would also introduce public hearings for candidates for the Supreme Court, and the election of the court’s president and vice president by all serving judges, and not the Judicial Selection Committee, as is currently the case.

Another item on the agenda is the “regulation of rules of procedure,” including as to how injunctions are issued by the Supreme Court. Cabinet ministers in the current government have repeatedly denounced the court for freezing the implementation of legislation and government decisions while the court considers the merits of the case.

Other items on the new overhaul agenda include splitting the role of attorney general, and making ministerial legal advisers political appointees, which would loosen the legal restraints on ministers.

Rothman describes the program as “a foundational plan to bring Israeli democracy back on track,” which he says “won’t happen if every decision is made by a deep state of officials and judges whom no one elected and no one will ever elect.”