Benjamin Netanyahu IS having a VERY BAD day….
In a momentous ruling that could ignite a constitutional crisis, Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday struck down a law passed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government that was meant to limit the court’s own powers, by a majority of eight judges to seven.
The decision is likely to rekindle the grave domestic situation that began a year ago over the government’s judicial overhaul plan — which sparked mass protests that brought the country to a near standstill at times — even as Israel is at war in Gaza.
The court, sitting with a full panel of all 15 of its justices for the first time in its history, rejected a law passed by Parliament in July. The law barred judges from using a particular legal standard to overrule decisions made by government ministers.
The court’s decision heralds a potential showdown between the top judicial authority and the ruling coalition, and could fundamentally reshape Israeli democracy, pitting the power of the government against that of the court.
In a country that has one house of Parliament, no formal written constitution and a largely ceremonial president, many defenders of Israel’s liberal democracy view the Supreme Court as the only bulwark against government power….
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For months, opponents of Israel’s judicial overhaul crowded the streets of cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to protest the Supreme Court overhaul, which aimed to lessen the court’s powers.
The protesters said the measure would leave the court unable to prevent government overreach. And many feared that a government, unbound by independent courts, would find it easier to end the prosecution of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges.
Days of “national disruption” also had protesters flooding the international airport near Tel Aviv, gathering outside ministers’ homes and taking to the sea to block the port in Haifa. In July, demonstrators erected tents near the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, in Jerusalem.
The dispute is part of a wider ideological and cultural standoffbetween the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its supporters, who want to make Israel into a more religious and nationalist state, and their opponents, who hold a more secular and pluralist vision of the country.
The coalition says the court has too often acted against right-wing interests, including preventing some construction of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank or striking down certain privileges granted to ultra-Orthodox Jews, like exemption from military service.
Divisions over the government plan led to what may be Israel’s gravest domestic political crisis since its founding 75 years ago.
But that was before the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, which largely united the country in the goal o
image…Pool photo by Menahem Kahana