Netanyahu to US media: Judicial overhaul is moving ahead without ‘override clause’
‘I threw that out,’ PM tells WSJ; says he’s attentive to which parts of legislation ‘will pass muster’ with public, will amend judicial selection bill; Biden meet ‘may take time’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Thursday that the so-called “override clause” — one of the most contentious elements of his government’s judicial overhaul plan — would not be advancing.
“Right after the original proposal was put forward, I said that the idea
of an override clause where the parliament, the Knesset, can override the decisions of the Supreme Court with a simple majority, I said, I threw that out,” Netanyahu told the newspaper.
His interviewee pressed, “That’s not coming back at all?” and Netanyahu responded, “You’re not following this. So people don’t know. They just don’t follow.”
The interviewer pressed again, “Well, we thought it might come back with the supermajority.” Netanyahu responded categorically: “No, I said it’s out.”
He added that he is “attentive to the public pulse, and to what I think will pass muster.”
His comments echoed remarks he made in March and April noting that a blanket override clause was no longer on the table.
Earlier this year, the government advanced a slate of legislation aimed at radically limiting the judicial branch’s checks on power. While Justice Minister Yariv Levin had originally floated the idea of allowing the Knesset to override decisions made by the High Court, the bill that was ultimately put forward would have allowed the Knesset to pass legislation that was immune from judicial review, which Hebrew media continued to refer to as an “override clause.”
In March, Netanyahu froze the slate of bills that his government had been pushing through the Knesset in order to allow for compromise talks. But earlier this month, the government restarted its legislative advance as the talks foundered.
Passing the override clause was a coalition demand of the Haredi parties, which have long been angered by the High Court’s rulings on certain issues relating to their community, including repeatedly striking down legislation that exempts them from military service. United Torah Judaism Minister Meir Porush told the Makor Rishon newspaper on Thursday that dropping the override clause would be a betrayal of his party’s agreement with Netanyahu.
The Wall Street Journal described the override clause as “the most controversial part of his plan” to overhaul the judiciary. In fact, another element of the overhaul legislation, which is awaiting its final Knesset readings, would remake the Judicial Selection Committee which appoints Israel’s judges and Supreme Court justices and give the ruling coalition almost full control over the appointments.
Netanyahu said in the interview that he still intends to change the way judges are selected, but that the current planned legislation would be amended. “It’s not going to be the current structure, but it’s not going to be the original structure,” he said, without further elaboration.
An unsourced Channel 12 report on Wednesday night said the prime minister intends to scrap the current nine-member panel, which comprises three justices, three coalition politicians, one opposition MK and two representatives of the Israel Bar Association, and where seven votes are needed to appoint a Supreme Court justice — meaning both the justices and the coalition members on the panel have veto power over appointments. Instead, according to the report, the revamped panel would comprise five coalition and five opposition politicians, and a simple majority would be required for Supreme Court appointments.
Currently, the government is pushing forward with an element of the overhaul relating to the “reasonable clause,” advancing a bill that would bar the court system from using a test of “reasonableness” in ruling against decisions and appointments made by all elected officials.
The Haaretz daily reported on Thursday that the chief architects of the overhaul, Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Knesset Constitution Committee chair Simcha Rothman, are working on a compromise version of the “reasonableness bill.”
According to the report, a new version of the legislation is likely to allow judges to shoot down as “unreasonable” decisions by mayors and local authority heads, as well as use the same test to gauge decisions to fire certain gatekeeping positions, including that of the attorney general.
Likud Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said Wednesday that the “reasonable” test was what was preventing the government from firing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who has spoken out against a number of key clauses in the overhaul.
Netanyahu’s comments to the Journal came after outgoing US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said he did not believe the government will unilaterally advance the entirety of its legislative package to overhaul the judiciary.
“I do not believe we’re going to wake up and they’re going to do all of this legislation unilaterally… My hope is that they will not do everything unilaterally because I think the reaction here would be quite dramatic,” Nides said on Tuesday during a virtual event organized by the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
Nides went on to maintain that the overhaul “was never [Netanyahu’s] major objective [when he became] prime minister. His coalition partners have a different objective,” but the premier is more interested in combating Iran and securing a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia.
In his WSJ interview, Netanyahu said that US-Israel relations remain strong despite the lack of a White House invitation from US President Joe Biden.
“I think it may take some time, but I think, of course, I should expect to meet President Biden,” Netanyahu said.
“This issue of the invitation clouds people’s views,” he added. “In fact, the security cooperation, the military cooperation and the intel cooperation, including cyber, is stronger than it’s ever been under our two governments.”
Netanyahu also pushed back against the notion that his far-right government is a stumbling block to Israel potentially normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia.
“I think peace is possible with additional Arab states, effectively ending the Arab-Israeli conflict,” he said. “And I think that would lead to peace with the Palestinians too.” Of his coalition allies, Netanyahu said that “they joined me. I didn’t join them. And ultimately, policy is determined by me and my colleagues in the Likud.”
On Wednesday US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the ongoing unrest in the West Bank, including a series of vigilante attacks carried out by settlers against Palestinians, makes any Saudi deal close to impossible.
“We’ve told our friends and allies in Israel that if there’s a fire burning in their backyard, it’s going to be a lot tougher, if not impossible, to actually both deepen the existing agreements, as well as to expand them to include potentially Saudi Arabia,” Blinken said.
In a call on Tuesday with Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, Blinken said that the US was extremely concerned about ongoing settler violence, which has received tacit approval from some of the most extremist elements of Netanyahu’s coalition.
In the interview published Thursday, Netanyahu reiterated his condemnation of such attacks, calling them “misguided, unacceptable and criminal.” He added: “I will not tolerate any of this vigilantism. The ones who have the monopoly on the use of violence are the military and our security forces, not any individual.”
