Knesset Bill to Overrule High Court in Pipeline

YERUSHALAYIM
Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich at the podium in the Knesset. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The struggle for legal supremacy in Israel between the High Court and the Knesset appeared headed for further escalation Tuesday with news of a coming legislative proposal to enable the parliamentary body to overrule the judiciary.

In anticipation of a High Court ruling to nullify the Regulation Law passed Monday night, MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) plans to introduce a bill this week that will make it possible for the Knesset to re-enact laws struck down by the judges.

The bill has the support of the coalition members except Kulanu Chairman Moshe Kahlon, who has so far refrained from signing on.

Smotrich told Arutz Sheva that the passage of the Regulation Law was “historic.” “We are returning the decision-making process to the people,” he said.

Likud Minister Yariv Levin urged the Court not to seek confrontation with the legislative branch over the Regulation Law. “The judicial system needs to be based upon rules and laws which have been approved by the Knesset,” Levin said on Army Radio. Duly-passed laws cannot be struck down “based on all kinds of comments by judges who sit and decide what is ‘reasonable’ and what is ‘proportionate’ in their view — and according to their world view. The Supreme Court, doing as it pleases, in the end seriously harms democracy,” Levin said.

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