In a chaotic and nearly violent session of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, the first of the highly contentious judicial reform bills were approved in a 9 to 7 vote, sending them to the full Knesset for approval.
The committee hearing opened with bedlam as protesting MKs shouted and chanted “shame” and “disgrace,” sang “Ein Li Eretz Acheret” — “I Have No Other Land” — and banged on the tables. One MK, Yesh Atid’s Yorai Lahav Hertzanu, jumped on a table before leaping off and aggressively approached committee chairman Simcha Rothman.
The disruptions continued for more than half an hour, with security called in to drag out 14 unruly MKs.
“Dialogue is important and we will do everything in order to advance it, but unfortunately the opposition is proving again and again that it is not headed to dialogue but to the unacceptable violent use of strength. I wish to strengthen my friend, Constitution Committee chairman Simcha Rothman, who is not surrendering to violence and is running the committee’s debates professionally and matter-of-factly,” said Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich following the committee meeting.
Culture and Sports Minister Mikki Zohar said in a statement, “The violent and disgraceful disturbance by the Knesset member from the opposition in the Constitution Committee is the crossing of a red line and a severe blow to the heart of democracy.”
“Even if we have arguments and differences of opinion – it is prohibited no matter what to jump over tables, violently clash with ushers and behave in the Israeli Knesset like the last of the anarchists. We have one state and one Knesset. Enough with the divisiveness,” Zohar’s statement added.
The new legislation adjusts the makeup of the Judicial Selection Committee, granting the government and coalition control over five out of nine seats, requiring only a simple majority vote to make appointments.
The committee will now include three cabinet ministers, one of whom will act as the committee chair and serve as the justice minister, three members of Knesset, two from the coalition and one from the opposition, the president of the Supreme Court, and two retired judges to be chosen by the justice minister in conjunction with the Supreme Court president.
This change gives the government and coalition a dominant presence on the judicial selection committee.
Previously, neither the government nor the judiciary had a majority when it came to appointing Supreme Court judges, but judges on the committee, along with representatives from the Israel Bar Association, held the majority for appointing lower court judges over elected officials.
As the committee proceedings were underway, tens of thousands of Israelis — hoisting flags, blowing on horns and chanting “democracy” and “no to dictatorship”— protested outside the Knesset.
It was the largest protest outside the Knesset in years and reflected the deep divisions over the plan.
“They hear our cry. They hear the strong voice of truth,” opposition leader Yair Lapid said from the stage outside parliament. “They hear it and they’re afraid.”
Netanyahu and his supporters say the proposed changes are needed to rein in a judiciary that wields too much power. But his critics say the judicial overhaul is tantamount to a coup and will destroy Israeli democracy. They also say that Netanyahu, who is on trial for a series of corruption charges, has a conflict of interest.
The protesters came from across the country. Organizers said that upwards of 100,000 people were in attendance. Trainloads of people arrived in Jerusalem on packed trains, streaming up escalators in the city’s main train station chanting, “democracy,” cheering and whistling, and waving the national flag. A few hundred others gathered in protest at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, before marching toward the Knesset.
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21 Responses
The de facto Constitution is the only think preserving the 1950s elite (ultra-secular, socialist, and highly Ashkenazi and European-oriented) tenuous grasp on power. They aren’t about to give it up easily.
Nobody but the “1950s elite (ultra-secular, socialist, and highly Ashkenazi and European-oriented)” founded the state. Everyone else just jumped on the bandwagon and try to take the reins. But that’s the way democracies go.
akuperma – if anything, the supporters of the bill are even worse Zionist כוחי ועוצם ידי warmongering kofrim.
How much have US and European tax-payers contributed towards these cowardly protests via the New Israel Fund?
elected Knesset Majority is dictatorship – Supreme court decisions by 9 judges is democracy – has the world gone crazy?
thanks to them I couldn’t get to the kosel today
the bus did not show up
RRR this is criminal….
Bunch of babies
what a bunch of thugs these leftist are. The “new Jew”?
Since there is no constitution is Israel, the Israeli Supreme Court is an unelected lawmaker which wields incredible power over elected officials, THAT is the definition of dictatorship.
Liberals are very “civil” 🤔
This is not nearly enough. There should be NO judges on the committee. It is fundamentally wrong to have judges involved in the selection of other judges. The bar association should probably be represented, but judges should absolutely be forbidden; they should not even be allowed to publicly express an opinion on appointments, and it should be a crime for them to privately communicate with committee members to influence them. That way the bar association representatives will not be forced to vote however the judges want, as they are now.
As for the claim that “the judicial overhaul is tantamount to a coup and will destroy Israeli democracy”, it is exactly backwards. The coup happened in the ’90s, when Aharon Barak’s court and the DOJ “legal advisers” seized power and overturned democracy. This is an attempt to take power back and restore democracy.
Don’t these chiloni dogs work for a living?
Not getting involved……I suspect the employment level, average income and any other metric labor force participation and productivity among these canine demonstrators is substantially higher than the rodent hooligans in the hafganot who throw dirty diapers, start fires in dumpsters, and call the police Nazis. Again, just speculation.
those videos of the knesset made my day.
HILARIOUS!!!
They just need to set up a cage for all the tzioni monkeys and feed them banana’s
In the words of Yizhak Rabin: “Let them spin like propellers”……
Like Pigs (who hold their hoofs out and say we are Kosher) these Morons hold Israeli flags as to say they are Israelies but they have no clue how tyrannical Supreme Court and GA really are SUPPRESSING VOTERS AND PM AND MP.
Until now when they (the Elite) controlled the government it was fine but when real Jews want change they are starting a Civil War by money from EU and US Reform, BDS movements collected by Lapid.
a bunch of Leftist Secularist Chiloni Shmutz…
these are the same people who vote for every kind of anti-torah shmutz, wave LGBTQ flags, are michalel shabbos, eat treif, and want a reform section opened up at the western wall.
Israel is a democracy, and the Right-wing has won. Deal with it.
they keep yelling “Busha, Busha”
the only בושה has been allowing these goyim with their anti-torah ideology to govern Eretz Yisroel for the past 75 years
they only like democracy when it goes along with their goyish anti-torah views. as soon as it doesn’t they behave like anarchists
Gadol: true, but we should judge people by their actions and value alignments, and not by IQ or professional achievements. The “monkeys” throwing diapers are fighting for the Torah way of life. The high tech entrepreneurs blocking traffic are fighting to reinforce the supremacy of the secular courts.
A “Sea” of “ugly, greasy, disgusting” Chilonim – to use their terms
Let them all “get a job”