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Israeli Prime Minister warns against overturning controversial judiciary laws
Israeli Prime Minister warns against overturning controversial judiciary laws
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday warned that his country would enter uncharted territory should the Supreme Court overturn the new law.
The new law would strip the court of its power to block government decisions, Netanyahu said in an interview with CNN.
“What you’re talking about is a situation, or potential situation, where in American terms, the U.S. Supreme Court will take a constitutional amendment and say that it’s unconstitutional.
“I hope we don’t get that,’’ Netanyahu said without commenting on whether his government would abide by a Supreme Court ruling.
Israel’s right-wing religious government accuses the judiciary of having too much influence on political decisions and it therefore wants to weaken the court.
The law prevented judges from categorising decisions made by the government or individual ministers as inappropriate.
Israel has no constitution, instead, it’s based on a collection of basic laws.
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The abolition of the so-called reasonableness standard is an amendment to one of these basic laws.
In Israel’s history, no comparable law has ever been overturned by the Supreme Court.
If the court were to oppose the government’s law, this could lead to a kind of constitutional crisis, as responsibilities would no longer be clearly defined.
In an interview with ABC News, the prime minister said that it was merely a minor correction to an activist court.
He carried on describing the concerns of opponents as silly.