Religious Zionism launches plans for more radical judicial overhaul after election

The far-right Religious Zionism party on Tuesday published 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 struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

The outgoing government also initially proposed such legislation, but it failed to pass in the face of massive public protests. It has been strongly criticized by many constitutional scholars who say it would essentially eliminate the court’s power of judicial review over legislation.

Religious Zionism chair Bezalel Smotrich said that the wide raft of far-reaching reforms is needed because Israel is at a “fateful juncture.” He noted 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 which 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 ideologues of the judicial overhaul, said they would also introduce public hearings for candidates for the Supreme Court, and that the court’s president and vice president would be elected by all serving judges — not the Judicial Selection Committee, as is currently the case.

Another item on the agenda is the “regulation of rules of procedure,” including 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 the attorney general and making ministerial legal advisers political appointees, which would loosen the legal restraints on ministers.

Rothman described the program as “a foundational plan to bring Israeli democracy back on track,” which he said “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.”

To advertise the new overhaul plan, Religious Zionism published an AI-generated video on X depicting Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, his colleague Justice Daphne Barak-Erez and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, being forcibly removed from a protest.

משחררים את החסימה. כן סמוטריץ! pic.twitter.com/s59NULke2S

— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) September 15, 2026

“Freeing up the stoppage,” Smotrich wrote, an allusion to the numerous decisions by the Supreme Court in its capacity as High Court of Justice over the last four years that have struck down government-backed legislation and government decisions.

Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot, whose party is leading in polls ahead of the October 27 election, called the video “violent and despicable.”

“They haven’t learned a thing from October 7,” he said, accusing the far-right minister and his party of being “prepared to drag Israeli society into the abyss – again,” referring to the unprecedented public protests and societal schism brought about by the outgoing government’s judicial overhaul agenda.

Together party leader Naftali Bennett similarly accused Smotrich of stoking societal division with the video, and Israel Bar Association head Amit Becher called the video “an act of incitement and violence” that “exposes the intentions of Smotrich, Rothman and in fact the [current Netanyahu-led] coalition, which is working to destroy a Jewish and democratic Israel.”

The outgoing government’s judicial overhaul brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to the streets in weekly protests during most of 2023, also sparking strikes and a movement among military reservists who said they would suspend their volunteer duty in response to the proposals.

The effort was shelved due to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack and subsequent multi-front war, but some crucial elements of the overhaul package were revived beginning about a year later, and the government succeeded in passing them.

Smotrich is running in the upcoming October 27 elections as part of a technical bloc with Zehut party leader Moshe Feiglin. Recent polls indicate the slate would win some six seats out of the Knesset’s total 120, if the elections were held today.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.