Yesh Atid MK says willing to return to talks even if ‘reasonableness’ bill clears 1st vote

Yesh Atid MK Karin Elharrar says her party would be willing to return to negotiations with the coalition to achieve a comprehensive judicial reform package, even if a bill limiting the judicial tool of reasonableness is passed in its first Knesset reading, as is expected later tonight.

But she accuses the government of seeking to undermine Israeli democracy incrementally and claims government appointments would become completely corrupt if the reasonableness bill is passed into law. She charges the measure would merely the first step in the coalition’s efforts to subvert the rule of law.

“The government tried to do this via the Hungarian method, all in one go and by ripping off the band-aid, but the protests stopped them. Now they’re trying the Polish method, doing it bit by bit so that people might not pay attention,” Elharrar tells The Times of Israel.

The MK, who was a member of the Yesh Atid negotiation team for a compromise solution over judicial reform, rejects claims by the coalition that the opposition ever agreed to the terms of the government’s reasonableness bill, although concedes that the opposition teams did make some compromises, but only within the framework of a comprehensive judicial reform package.

“Limits on reasonableness would be balanced out by how judges are appointed, and by a Basic Law: Legislation, and a Basic Law: Judiciary, it all comes in one package, and how there wouldn’t be any further legislation after this package,” says Elharrar.

The Yesh Atid MK and former government minister rejects claims that the opposition showed bad faith in quitting the compromise negotiations, insisting that the coalition’s decision to thwart the convening of the Judicial Selection Committee violated an agreement with the opposition and that it was the government’s bad faith that causes the talks to fall apart.

“The coalition should elect its representative to the Judicial Selection Committee, stop the legislation, and then we can go back to the [negotiations at the] president’s residence,” insists Elharrar.