Israel's Supreme Court strikes down Netanyahu govt's judicial overhaul initiative

Jerusalem: The Israeli Supreme Court's landmark decision nullifying a controversial law passed by Parliament in 2023 received mixed reactions on Tuesday even as the media said the "wise thing" for the government, already fighting a major war against Hamas militants in Gaza, would be to "let go and move on".

The July 2023 law passed by Knesset, the Israeli parliament, had eliminated the reasonableness clause, part of the judicial overhaul, that many criticised would have weakened the judiciary, giving the executive “unreasonable” powers, which would have threatened the basic democratic nature of the Israeli State.

The "reasonableness" law was part of a wider series of judicial reforms introduced by the government led by 74-year-old Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Late on Monday evening, all 15 Supreme Court justices participated in the decision with the ruling passed by a razor-thin 8-7 majority, reminiscent in many ways of the divided population on the evocative issue which saw the largest demonstrations in the country right till the outbreak of the war on October 7 following the unprecedented attack by Hamas militants.

Israel lacks a written constitution and has been governed since its independence based on a certain set of Basic Laws.

Detailing the arguments given by each of the judges, in favour and against, local media reports said Monday’s decision was a way for the court to tell the Knesset that it cannot dictate what the court needs to do and stated that Knesset’s next move can possibly be “to legislate a law saying, ‘yes, we can do exactly that’.”

“In other words, if the government decides to push the issue amid a raging war, the country may not know who has the final word: the government/Knesset or the court,” an analysis said.

The Jerusalem Post said in a comment piece: “The wise thing for the government to do now is just to forget about it and let it go. The government passed the controversial amendment, and the High Court of Justice shot it down. In the meantime, Hamas attacked, killed 1,200 people, took another 240 hostages, and plunged the country into an existential war.”

Observing that the current political constellation is expected to change dramatically after the war in any event, it said that "the governing coalition that pushed through this reform will likely not be the one ruling the country that much longer.” 

The Post also said: “For the good of the country, move on. Just move on. Let it be, drop the issue now, and continue focusing all energies right now on fighting Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, and even Iranians themselves – don’t restart a domestic fight over this. Not now.” 

Times of Israel described Monday's decision as a “landmark ruling” with the court striking down the government’s reasonableness limitation law that will go down in history “not for annulling that problematic legislation, dramatic as that decision is, but for upholding by a huge majority the principle that Israel’s democracy is inviolable.” 

“The justices of the court declared emphatically that the Knesset is not all-powerful, that the legislature and government must be subject to external restraints, and that the narrow political majorities cannot threaten the rights of the individual and minorities,” it said.

The July 2023 bill had divided Israeli society in two halves with threats of boycotts being made by reserve officers in combat and intelligence units. Former heads of Mossad, Shin Bet (internal security agency) and Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had also warned against the long-term impact of the proposed legislation with some arguing that these threats may have emboldened Israel's enemies to launch an attack against it.

Netanyahu, in his sixth term, headed an unprecedentedly hardline Israeli coalition government almost till the outbreak of the war when some of the opposition parties joined the government to help support the war efforts and demonstrate unity amid an existential threat.

Before October 7, protesters had fought relentlessly for months against the judicial overhaul plans giving the government the power to override Supreme Court decisions, strike down laws and appoint Justices.

With the formation of the unity government to boost Israel's war efforts, the government announced that it was putting a halt on all the contentious issues related to the judicial overall initiative.

The decision came ahead of the January 12 deadline because of the law that says that retiring judges have three months to finish writing opinions in pending cases; two judges had retired in mid-October in this case after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.