Ministers approve Supreme Court override bill

A bill that would allow the Knesset to re-pass laws struck down by the Supreme Court received the Ministerial Committee for Legislation’s unanimous approval Sunday, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call to postpone the vote.

The bill is not likely to get the 61 votes necessary to pass any votes in the Knesset’s plenum, because Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon instructed Kulanu’s 10 MKs to vote against it, and Likud MK Bennie Begin said he will do so, as well. And if the vote is held this Wednesday, the day for preliminary votes, Netanyahu plans to be in Moscow when it takes place.

Kahlon’s and his party’s reticence is one reason Netanyahu did not want the vote to be held Sunday, though he says he supports the idea of the bill.

“In order to be practical with the override clause, there must be a dialogue between all factors in the coalition so we can reach an agreed-upon formula,” Netanyahu told coalition party leaders.

Yet Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of the same party, who is chairwoman of the ministerial committee, pushed for a vote on a version of the override clause proposed by MK Bezalel Smotrich, also of Bayit Yehudi.

Smotrich’s bill states that the Knesset can re-pass laws that were overturned by the Supreme Court with a supermajority of 61 MKs. Most laws can be passed with a majority of lawmakers in the room.

“The override article…passed unanimously in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation. This is a great day for Israeli democracy,” Bennett wrote on Facebook after the vote. “We will strengthen governance and the public’s trust in the courts. I thank my fellow cabinet members for the support.”

The current push to reverse Supreme Court decisions is due to a ruling earlier this year to stop the government’s plan to deport African migrants to third countries, in part because the agreements with those countries were not being upheld. In the ensuing months, all of the agreements fell apart.

All coalition parties are for the deportation, but Kahlon opposes weakening the Supreme Court. Kahlon has some support for his position within his party – MK Rachel Azaria has vocally opposed the override bill – but the other Kulanu ministers, Economics Minister Eli Cohen and Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Gallant, disagree.

Kahlon said after Sunday’s vote that it violated the coalition agreement, and demanded Netanyahu hold talks with the coalition partners.

“Israel is too dear to us to give it up to extremists,” Kahlon added.

Kahlon’s position is due in part to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s opposition to it. Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri told the ministers that Mandelblit’s “position is to oppose all the proposals. We’re not saying they’re unconstitutional, because it’s an amendment to a Basic Law” – laws that are meant to be chapters of a future constitution – “but we oppose it.”

Instead, Nizri called for a broader bill regulating the relationship between the legislative and judicial branches of government. Bennett said he would prefer such an initiative, as well, but the coalition agreement gives veto power over new Basic Laws, which means Kulanu would block it.

All of the opposition parties came out against the override clause.

Zionist Union faction chairman Yoel Hasson said that all of the party’s MKs will come out to vote against the bill in the Knesset.

“This is an illegitimate law that goes against the public interest and harms democracy, and we do not plan to help the coalition pass it,” he stated.

Joint List MK Aida Touma-Sliman warned the bill “is dangerous and can destroy the democratic space and make human rights subject to the whims of the extreme right.”

In Yesh Atid, MK Yael German said “the current government…declared war on the principles of the Declaration of Independence and Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty…The bill will strengthen the majority and weaken the minority. It’ll start with refugees, Arabs and continue to women, the gay community, and so on.”

Meretz chairwoman Tamar Zandberg said the bill will authorize “any racist, homophobic, anti-democratic and anti-secular idea. The bill is meant to prevent the High Court of Justice from stopping racist, anti-democratic initiatives. The government wants to circumvent the High Court to forcibly deport refugees, to arrest asylum-seekers without a trial for an unlimited amount of time, and to close all businesses on Saturdays, to anchor in law the [ultra-Orthodox] exemption from the military, to whitewash all outposts in the territories and those that will come, to separate men and women in government organizations, to expand acceptance committees in neighborhoods and cities. All of these are bills that are already on the way and who knows what will come after that.”