Major Judicial Reform Bills Pass First Reading

The Knesset early Tuesday passed the first reading of major judicial reform bills, including the Override Clause.

After a lengthy filibuster, the plenum split between Coalition-Opposition lines, with 61 MKs voting in favor of the measure, and 52 voting against it.

If passed, the override Override Clause clause will allow a 61-seat majority of the Knesset to relegislate laws struck down by the High Court as “unconstitutional,” in effect for as long as the coalition remains in power. After a year, the possibility to extend comes under review.

The proposed law would also limit the High Court’s judicial review, requiring 80% of its justices to overturn a law and prevent the attorney general from declaring Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu unfit for office.

Tuesday’s vote marks the first of three before the bill becomes law.

“For eight weeks we have been calling for negotiations. We are bringing the reform to the Knesset to decide,” Netanyahu said last week. “I call upon those in the opposition to do something simple: Present your alternative in an attempt to reach an agreement.”

The premier said that with goodwill an agreement could be reached “within days.”

Opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz rejected the overture and conditioned any negotiations on the government freezing the accompanying legislative process.

Other bills that passed first reading on Tuesday include one that would repeal the clauses of the Disengagement Law, allowing Israelis to enter territory from which Israel disengaged in 2005, and thereby allowing the government to legalize communities in the region, such as Homesh.