Voting on Override Bill Delayed for Meeting with High Court President

Voting on the override bill was overridden on Monday, as Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave in to the demand of High Court President Esther Hayut to meet with Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, on condition that discussion of the bill be postponed for a week, Arutz Sheva reported.

The agreement means that the meeting of the Ministerial Committee of Legislation — which Shaked chairs — to discuss the Overrule Clause, will not take place on Sunday, as her own party leader Naftali Bennett had insisted on earlier in the day. Instead, Hayut and Shaked will talk on Sunday.

Proponents of the bill, which would authorize the Knesset to reinstate legislation ruled unconstitutional by the High Court, are concerned that Netanyahu’s courting of Hayut indicates that he will back a weakened version of the bill, which as drafted, would give parliament override power based on a simple majority vote of 61 MKs.

Jewish Home MK Betzalel Smotrich reacted angrily to the news, characterizing it as “chutzpah which knows no bounds,” in a tweet. “This is a blatant judicial intervention in the work of the government and the Knesset. The president [of the Court] does not do the prime minister any kindness in ‘deigning’ to meet with him.”

“I also do not remember that she met him for discussion before she overruled Knesset laws without blinking. If the prime minister surrenders, he humiliates us all to the ground and proves that he is simply not a leader,” Smotrich declared.