The Israeli opposition will appeal to the Supreme Court the first judicial reform law to be passed
The head of the Israeli opposition, Yair Lapid, announced that they will appeal to the Supreme Court the law passed on Monday by the government, which limits the ability of the highest judicial body to review government decisions and represents the first major achievement of the judicial reform promoted by the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Tomorrow morning we will appeal this legislation, the unilateral cancellation of the democratic character of the State of Israel and the undemocratic and predatory way in which the discussions in the Knesset constitutional committee were conducted, to the Supreme Court," Lapid said on his Twitter account.
"They have not won, because the battle is not over, it is just beginning," Lapid added in a televised speech, in which he said the law passed today "violates the rules of the game" and urged participants in the anti-government protests not to give up and to wait for the Supreme Court's ruling.
These statements come shortly after parliament passed, with 64 votes in favour and zero against - the entire opposition absent from the plenary vote - the law overturning the reasonableness doctrine, which allowed the Supreme Court to review and overturn government decisions based on whether they are reasonable or not.
Following the vote, large groups of demonstrators moved to the Supreme Court building in Jerusalem after protesting for several hours in front of the parliament. Others have blocked major thoroughfares in Jerusalem, blocking traffic in the city.
"This is the most serious crisis we have ever faced and it was not caused by our enemies but by an extremist and radical government," said Lapid, who also accused Netanyahu of having become "a puppet of a group of extremists and messianics".
Meanwhile, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a leading local NGO, announced that it had already appealed the law to the Supreme Court and warned that it is "an unconstitutional law because it fundamentally changes the basic structure of Israeli parliamentary democracy and the nature of the regime".
אני קורא מפה לגיבורים ולגיבורות של המחאה. אל תאמינו למצהלות השמחה המזוייפות. תאמינו לעצמכם. תאמינו לקול הצלול והברור והחזק שלכם. תאמינו שהעתיד הוא של מי שלא מוותר לעולם.
— יאיר לפיד - Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) July 24, 2023
The NGO further argued that, in practice, the law "abrogates the judiciary and severely damages the delicate fabric of the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances in the State of Israel" and "gives unlimited power to the executive branch".
Following today's vote, Israel's main trade union centre, the Histadrut, announced that its president, Arnon Bar-David, had called a meeting with the organisation's leadership in order to call a general strike in protest at the measure.
In addition, the organisers of the anti-reform demonstrations, which have not stopped for more than seven months, called for new "emergency protests" in different parts of the country, which could last into the night or even several days.
