Israel’s ruling party accused of threatening court over judicial reforms

The Israeli opposition has accused prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party of intimidating judges ahead of next month’s supreme court session that will determine the legality of a law passed last week preventing the court from overturning government actions it considers unreasonable.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid accused Likud of sending a veiled threat to the supreme court after Likud issued a statement saying Israeli democracy would be severely damaged in the event of any deviation from one of the two fundamental principles of the rule of law in the country. These, it said, were that Israeli governments had always made sure to respect the law and court rulings and that the court had always made sure to respect basic laws.

The coalition classified last week’s law as an amendment to the basic law concerning the powers of the judiciary. Israel’s basic laws are the closest the country has to a constitution.

Likud issued its statement after the supreme court announced that all its 15 justices would be on the panel that would consider petitions that were filed against the law to restrict the application of the grounds of reasonability. The court session will be held in another six weeks.

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“The Likud has sent a clear and violent hint to the high court of justice judges, saying that basic laws have never been struck down by the court, so don’t even try to touch them now. You’re in our crosshairs,” said Mr Lapid.

Mr Netanyahu, in a series of interviews with US television stations over the past few days, has refused to commit to obeying next month’s court decision, stressing that Israel will be entering “unchartered waters” if the judiciary strikes down the government law.

‘Basic laws’

Likud Knesset member Tally Gotliv made it clear she would not respect a court ruling to strike down the law.

“The supreme court has no authority to intervene in basic laws,” she said. “I am sorry to disappoint you, high court judges, you are definitely not above the law. A ruling without authority is void.”

The supreme court has never sat in the past with all 15 justices on the panel and some commentators interpreted the move as a sign that the court intends to accept the petitions and to strike down the new law, since that is the only situation in which the legitimacy conferred by all the justices is needed. It also avoids possible accusations that a limited panel of more liberal judges was “cherry-picked” by supreme court president Esther Hayut to produce a verdict unfavourable to the right-wing government.

Other commentators noted that with all 15 justices it will be difficult to obtain a unanimous verdict and the prevailing assumption is that the court would not dare strike down a basic law if there was a minority opinion.

Separately, five Israelis were wounded Tuesday when a Palestinian gunman opened fire on passersby outside a shopping mall in the Ma’ale Adumim settlement. The gunman was shot and killed at the scene by an off-duty border policeman.