Jerusalem (EFE)
“I ordered the immediate stoppage of takeoffs,” announced today the president of the airport workers’ union, Pinjas Idán.
Although the flights that had already begun to enter on board were authorized to take off, a spokeswoman for the Airports Authority confirmed to EFE that the rest of the takeoffs have been canceled for the moment.
The most controversial points of Netanyahu’s judicial reform that divides Israel
Israel is plunged into its biggest constitutional crisis since its founding in 1948 since Netanyahu’s new government announced its judicial reform plan, which seeks to reduce the independence of Justice and increase Executive control over it.
Today, the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, made an urgent appeal to Netanyahu to “act responsibly and courageously” and stop “immediately” the legislative process of the controversial judicial reform that divides the country.
Netanyahu dismissed his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last night, after he publicly called for stopping the judicial reform, the first critical voice within the Government, which unleashed massive and improvised demonstrations throughout the country, with the attendance of more than 650,000 people, which is expected to be repeated today.
The General Union of Workers of Israel, the country’s largest union, announced Monday that if the government does not stop the judicial reform, it will begin a general strike that would spread to countless sectors of the economy and the country’s main hospitals.
The decision was announced by the president of the entity, Arnon Bar-David, after two consecutive days of massive protests against the judicial reform and after the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, dismissed his defense minister for asking to temporarily stop this controversy. legislation against social division.
The most controversial points of judicial reform
The legislation, whose most controversial aspects are already advancing in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), has provoked the largest protests in Israel’s history, with a record 650,000 attendees last night, after Netanyahu dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for ask to stop its processing.
The Government alleges that the Supreme Court has historically meddled too much in political matters, so it is necessary to put a limit on those powers; while the reform’s detractors argue that an independent judiciary is vital for the democratic health of the country, where the legislative and executive powers tend to merge as it is always the ruling coalition that monopolizes the parliamentary majority, with almost absolute power to impose laws.
These are the most controversial points of the reform:
1- Election of judges: The committee responsible for recommending the appointment of judges is currently made up of nine members, including sitting judges, representatives of the Israel Bar Association, members of the Knesset and the government; so that an agreement between all is required to choose the judges.
The reform proposed by the Minister of Justice, Yariv Levin, seeks to expand the members of the committee to eleven and change the composition of the committee: three ministers and three legislators from the coalition, in addition to three independent judges and two legislators from the opposition; which would give the government a majority of six members out of eleven.
This is the softened version of the judge selection law, modified a week ago, since the initial formulation gave the government a majority of seven members, with absolute power in the election and dismissal of all judges, including those of the Supreme Court. This law was expected to be approved in the Knesset this week.
2- Judicial review: The proposed changes seek to stop the Supreme Court from reviewing legislation, including the Basic Law, a body of laws with constitutional rank. The reform seeks to require that the invalidation of any law require the consensus of 80% of the panel of Supreme Court judges, when now only a simple majority is necessary.
This is a point that even some detractors of the reform defend, since many believe that the Supreme Court has too much power to reverse laws, although they differ in form and defend that more than a simple majority is required for the approval or modification of basic laws. in Parliament.
3- Annulment Clause: This is one of the aspects that has sparked the most controversy, since it would allow a simple parliamentary majority (61 deputies out of 120) to annul Supreme Court rulings when they imply reversing or modifying laws.
Opponents of the law see this clause as a clear violation of the separation of powers and judicial independence and, therefore, a serious threat to Israeli democracy. The bill that includes the annulment clause, which also allows laws to be shielded from judicial review, passed in the first instance two weeks ago and its final approval was delayed until May, after the parliamentary recess for Passover.
4- Legal advisers to the ministries: The reform proposed by the Government seeks to reclassify the positions of legal advisers to the ministries, which until now were independent experts supervised by the Ministry of Justice, to politically elected lawyers. In addition, the opinions of these advisors will no longer be binding and enforceable.
In this way, the respective ministers will have full control to choose and dismiss the advisers, which for the detractors of the reform implies a clear politicization of judicial controls.
5- Reasonableness: The reform seeks to limit the scope of the concept of “reasonableness” by which the courts can submit, on their own initiative, to judicial review any government decision, including the appointment of public offices, based on whether they consider the measures reasonable or unreasonable. .
Based on this criterion, the Supreme Court considered in January the appointment as Minister of the Interior and Health of the ultra-Orthodox leader Aryeh Deri “unreasonable”, months after he was convicted of tax fraud and avoided prison in exchange for a plea agreement in the one who promised to leave politics.
