Sa’ar rules out negotiation over substance of new judicial overhaul package
FM says some parts of proposal may change in legislative process but not ‘big elements’. Former Supreme Court president: Judges in new system will be ‘yes men’ of the government

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Monday that he does not expect the major elements of a new judicial overhaul program he recently unveiled with Justice Minister Yariv Levin to be subject to negotiations, indicating that there would be no substantial compromises on the proposal.
Speaking at a press conference with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen, Sa’ar said he and Levin “negotiated [the proposal] for a very long time,” dating back to before the war began, when Sa’ar was still in the opposition.
The coalition will take the first procedural steps to start the legislative process for Levin and Sa’ar’s proposal later this week, with the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee scheduling a hearing on the legislation for Wednesday.
The proposal would change the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee and reduce the influence of the judiciary on that panel, create a distinctive method for passing quasi-constitutional Basic Laws, make Basic Laws immune to judicial review, and make judicial review over regular legislation significantly more difficult.
It has already faced heavy criticism from opposition MKs and legal experts, including former Supreme Court president Dorit Beinisch, who said on Monday that the revised overhaul program would politicize the judiciary and therefore undermine its independence. Israel has no constitution, and the governing coalition can steer legislation at will through the Knesset, so the judiciary is the only brake on the power of the executive branch.
During the press conference with Rasmussen, Sa’ar, a former justice minister himself, said he and Levin had been discussing a revised judicial overhaul plan for many months, while he was still in the opposition, before announcing some of the details last week.

The two ministers “negotiated it for a very long time, we started the talks… before the war began,” said Sa’ar.
“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,” he said in response to a question from The Times of Israel at the press conference as to whether he was willing to negotiate over the package with the opposition.
Sa’ar rejoined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in September 2024. He was a 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.
On Wednesday, the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee will begin procedural steps to begin advancing Levin and Sa’ar’s new proposals on the legislative path, although they will be starting at an advanced stage of the process.
A previous bill at the heart of Levin’s original judicial overhaul plan, which would have given the ruling coalition almost complete control over all judicial appointments, was voted out of committee in March 2023, but was never brought for its final two readings in the Knesset plenum due to massive public protests and backlash. It has remained frozen ever since.
The Constitution, Law and Justice Committee’s hearing on Wednesday will deliberate and vote on whether or not to withdraw the original bill from the plenum and bring it back to the committee for renewed deliberation and amendments to its provisions.
The hearing will not, however, deal with the content of the new proposals themselves.
Speaking at a conference of the Israel Democracy Institute, Beinisch, the former Supreme Court president, contended that Levin and Sa’ar’s new proposal would politicize the judiciary since it would significantly reduce the influence of independent legal professionals on the Judicial Selection Committee.

“If everyone is political, a judge who is not from my camp cannot advance,” said Beinisch in explaining how a politicized committee would, according to her, act.
She said that judges would realize that “in order to advance… we will need to find favor in the eyes of politicians,” adding that “a judge who is appointed on behalf of the government needs to be the ‘yes man’ of the government, not exercise review over it.”
The former Supreme Court president accused Levin directly of pushing forward with his agenda specifically to get two legal academics he admires onto the court.
Beinisch was referring to hardline conservative academics, Dr. Aviad Bakshi and Dr. Rafael Biton, with whom Levin said he consulted when drafting his initial judicial overhaul program.
“He [Levin] wants two candidates of his [to be appointed], and if not ‘we’ll change the system,’ that’s what’s happened here,” said Beinisch.
She also insisted that the public was not interested in judicial reform during the ongoing war, and that the current government was not elected on that mandate, having emphasized issues such as the cost of living during the election campaign and not changing Israel’s legal system.
A survey published by the Israel Democracy Institute on Monday — conducted between December 31, 2024 and January 6, 2025 on the issue of judicial reform, but before Levin and Sa’ar’s announcement — found that only 8.5 percent of Israelis said they thought advancing judicial reform was the most important issue for the government to deal with at the moment.