Sa’ar says doesn’t expect major elements of unveiled judicial overhaul to undergo further changes

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says he does not expect the major elements of his recently unveiled new judicial overhaul plan to undergo any further negotiations or changes.

The foreign minister says he and Justice Minister Yariv Levin “negotiated it for a very long time, we started the talks… before the war began,” when Sa’ar still sat in the opposition.

“It took us a long time to achieve this formula,” Sa’ar says in response to a question from The Times of Israel at a press conference alongside his Danish counterpart in Jerusalem. “Of course, during legislation, things can change, but I don’t see that the big elements in this suggestion — I don’t see how they will be changed.”

Sa’ar rejoined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in September 2024, and the minister is reportedly planning to soon rejoin the prime minister’s Likud party, which he left in 2020. Sa’ar, who served as justice minister in the last government, was a vocal and vociferous critic of Levin’s original judicial overhaul proposals for giving the executive branch too much power over the judiciary, while still backing reforms to the system.