Less than a month ago, mass protests took place in Israel. The reason behind the protests was the proposed Israeli Judicial Reform, proposed by the Israeli government.
While this blog briefly explains the situation, it does not cover the whole story, and it is not intended, in any way, to express opinion, rather, it will provide you with a general idea of what the reason behind the protests.
Unlike the United States, Israel does not have a written constitution, in fact, attempts to draft a constitution in Israel have failed. There are, however, Basic Laws. For instance, Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (1992).
Under the current framework, the Supreme Court of Israel can exercise a “Judicial Review”. The government’s acts, laws, regulations, and more, are subject to the judicial review. There are several reasons behind the judicial review, one can think about it as it balances the powers.
Throughout the years, the Supreme Court of Israel struck down a number of laws and/or amendments of laws.
For example, on March 26th, 2002, the Supreme Court of Israel, as the High Court of Justice, struck down a proposed amendment for a law that intended to allow Radio Broadcasting without a license. The High Court of Justices struck down the law, considered it null and void, due to the fact that the proposed amendment violates Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation.
Based on Basic Law: The Judiciary (1984), judges in Israel are selected by a “Judicial Selection Committee” (“The Committee”), the Committee includes nine (9) members. The Committee members are as follows:
The majority of the Committee is required to select judges for all courts except for the Supreme Court. The Selection of judges of Supreme Court judges requires seven (7) votes out of the Committee members.
However, one of the proposed changes is to amend Basic Law: The Judiciary, in a way for giving more power to the government representatives in the Committee. The way it is proposed is by changing the number of the committee members from nine (9) to eleven (11) members, with vast majority members from the government, in a way, giving the government a veto in selecting a judge.
Another proposed reform is giving the Knesset the power to override the judicial review, basically, if the Supreme Court nulls and voids a law, the Knesset can, under the proposed reform, vote against the Supreme Court decision.
Many disagree with the proposed reform, for many reasons, high ranked personals voiced their opinion, however, they were fired. People did not agree with this, decided to protest, voiced their opinion, and as for now the proposed reform is on hold.