The coalition and opposition are close to finalizing their first agreement with regard to the government’s proposed judicial reforms and may announce it as soon as Wednesday, Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman said to the press ahead of his party’s weekly meeting on Monday.
According to a number of reports, the opposition parties that are taking part in the talks – Yesh Atid and National Unity – will agree to legislate two relatively small parts of the reform, in exchange for the coalition announcing that it is freezing all other judicial reform legislation for an extended period, possibly a year or more.
The two agreed-upon parts would enable government ministers to hire private representation when their policies are challenged in court if the Attorney-General does not agree to represent them; and limit the Supreme Court’s ability to use the “reasonableness factor” when evaluating the legality of government decisions.
Yisrael Beytenu is not a part of the talks, and Liberman voiced harsh criticism of the agreement, arguing that at its core, its intention is to bring Shas chairman MK Aryeh Deri back into the government. The Supreme Court used the “reasonableness clause” in January to strike down the legality of Deri’s appointment as Health Minister and Interior Minister, due to Deri’s recurring criminal convictions and attempts to mislead the court during the most recent conviction in 2022, that he was intending to leave politics.
“I hope they [National Unity chair MK Benny Gantz and Yesh Atid chair MK Yair Lapid] wake up and do not give this a hand, because as soon as Deri returns to the Netanyahu government, it is a significant strengthening for Netanyahu’s haredi, messianic coalition,” Liberman said, adding that he would “everything in his power” to prevent the agreement.
Finance Minister and Israel Beytenu party chairman Avigdor Liberman speaks during a faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on December 12, 2022 (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)The agreement could be reached as soon as Wednesday, after opposition representative MK Karin Elharrar (Yesh Atid) is appointed to the Judicial Selection Committee. Both Gantz and Lapid threatened that if the opposition is not given one of the Knesset’s two spots on the committee, as is tradition, they will leave the judicial reform talks.
There are currently seven candidates from the coalition for the Knesset’s two spots on the Judicial Selection Committee. The vote is anonymous, and therefore if the coalition puts forward more than one candidate, there is no way to ensure ahead of time that one spot will go to the opposition.
Gantz denies reports of agreement
Minutes later, Gantz denied that such an agreement was in the offing.
The National Unity chairman demanded that first and foremost a member of the opposition be chosen to serve on the committee, and then the talks will continue. MK Gideon Sa’ar, who is one of Gantz’s representatives in the talks at the president’s residence, also said that agreements had not been reached yet.
However, Gantz did say that “no political consideration will stand between us and what is right for the State of Israel.”
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