After passing budget, Netanyahu vows to press on with judicial overhaul
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset. (Getty)
This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will restart the push to radically change Israel’s judiciary after his government successfully passed the state budget, an important component of the overhaul, early on Wednesday.
In an interview with Channel 14, Netanyahu said “of course” when asked whether the judicial overhaul, which was put on hold earlier this year amid unprecedented public opposition, would resume.
רה"מ נתניהו לערוץ 14: "זהו שחר של יום חדש. יום טוב לאזרחי ישראל. הרפורמה המשפטית תחזור. הקואליציה תהיה פה 4 שנים". pic.twitter.com/93ONSs3hyN
— Moti Kastel מוטי קסטל (@KastelMoti) May 24, 2023
“We’re already in the middle of it, we’re trying to reach an understanding and I hope we’ll be successful,” Netanyahu added, referring to ongoing talks with the opposition to reach a compromise on the controversial plan.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid responded to Netanyahu’s claim that he would push forward with the overhaul, saying it won’t pass because “we’re done being Netanyahu’s suckers,” and that his remarks came as no surprise as “we have zero trust in him.” Lapid added that President Isaac Herzog must demand Netanyahu make “an immediate, public and clear clarification of his dangerous statement.”
National Unity party chairman Benny Gantz reacted to Netanyahu’s statement, saying the prime minister is “once again drunk with power.”
“I want to remind Netanyahu that stupidity is repeating the same action and expecting different results. If the judicial coup resumes, we’ll shake the country and bring it to a halt,” Gantz added.
The new state budget was approved by the Knesset overnight, with 64 members – all from the governing coalition – voting in favor. The state budget is the second and most important of the seven legislative proposals that make up the proposed overhaul of Israel’s judicial system being spearheaded by Netanyahu’s government.
Following the passing of the budget, Lapid said “while you were asleep, the worst and most destructive budget in Israel’s history was passed. It brings no good news, doesn’t fight the [high] cost of living, and only amounts to endless extortion. This budget is a violation of the [government’s] contract with the citizens of Israel. All of us, including our children, will pay for it.”
National Unity party chairman Benny Gantz said in a video posted on Twitter that the budget was “politically biased,” catering “more than a hundred percent to the coalitions needs, zero [percent] to the country’s needs.”
Leaders of the anti-government protest movement said in response to the passing of the budget that “After looting citizen’s tax money and bribing his coalition partners, Netanyahu is admitting his plot to continue dragging Israel toward a dangerous Messianic dictatorship. Israel is in great danger” and it’s “mandatory to resist.”
Earlier this week, sources told Haaretz that the Netanyahu government and the opposition were nearing their first compromise in ongoing negotiations on the judicial overhaul.
This came just a week after overhaul architect MK Simcha Rothman said that if no agreement was reached with the opposition, some of the judicial overhaul bills would likely be passed this Knesset term – such as the amendments to the Judicial Appointments Committee, “which is already ready,” he said.
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