The Supreme Court has decided to annul a key element of the Netanyahu government's judicial reform: the change to the so-called “appropriateness clause”, which the government had described as a fundamental law. Eight of the 15 justices who heard the matter ruled against this change (effectively repealing the “clause”). Twelve of the 15 justices also ruled that the Supreme Court had the right to strike down a fundamental law.
According to eight judges, this amendment must now be annulled “as it fundamentally excludes any judicial criticism of the appropriateness of decisions made by the government, the prime minister or ministers. In their opinion, this represents a severe and unprecedented blow to the characteristics of essential elements of the State of Israel as a democratic state.”
On the question of whether the Supreme Court can overturn a basic law, 12 of the 15 judges ruled that it could do so “in exceptional and extreme cases in which the Knesset has exceeded the limits of its predetermined authority.”
The first reaction of Justice Minister Yariv Levin (Likud), the ideologue of the Netanyahu government's judicial reform, is harsh: “The judges – he explained – have appropriated all the prerogatives that are balanced in a democratic regime” among the three State powers”. “A situation in which it is not possible to vote in the Knesset on a fundamental law without the approval of the Supreme Court – said Levin – deprives the citizens of Israel of the right to participate in the country's decisions.”
Read the full article on ANSA.it