On the evening of Monday, January 1, 2023, the Israeli Supreme Court annulled the “limiting reasonableness” law included in the “judicial amendments” package proposed by the extremist government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

The law had sparked controversy, reduced some of the Supreme Court's powers, and sparked protests across the country. The law also abolished one of the tools used by the Supreme Court to overturn government and ministerial decisions, but not all of them, and took away the court's power to invalidate what it considered "unreasonable" decisions.

The court (the highest judicial authority) said in a statement that eight out of 15 judges ruled in favor of repealing the law, while an immediate comment was issued by Netanyahu's Likud party, which said that the Supreme Court's decision "contradicts the people's will for unity, especially in times of war."

The “limitation of reasonableness” law could prevent Israeli courts, including the Supreme Court, from applying what is known as the “reasonableness standard” to decisions made by elected officials, including the prime minister.

According to the official Hebrew Broadcasting Corporation, “12 of the judges stated that the court has the authority to conduct a judicial review of the Basic Laws (as a constitution in Israel), and to intervene in exceptional and extreme cases in which the Knesset exceeds its founding authority.”

Yesterday, Sunday, Aryeh Deri, head of the religious “Shas” party, a partner in the government coalition, instructed his party members to draft a law preventing the publication of the court’s decision, which, according to their opinion, “will lead to deepening the rift in the nation during the war, at a time when our soldiers are sacrificing their lives in In order to defend Israel,” according to the broadcasting authority.

On the other hand, the “Official Camp” party, led by Benny Gantz, and the “Israel Our Home” party, led by Avigdor Lieberman, opposed Deri’s initiative to postpone the publication of the ruling.

According to Gantz, talk about preventing the publication of the ruling is “a dangerous precedent that affects the independence of the court,” and he added in a statement from his party that “the correct way to prevent the division expected after the publication of the court’s decision is to cancel the legislation in the Knesset.”

The Israeli Knesset ratified the aforementioned law in July 2023 by a majority of 64 out of 120 members, in the absence of the opposition, whose parties decided not to participate in the vote in protest against it.

The law, which was annulled by the Supreme Court, is one of eight draft laws known as the “Judicial Amendments Plan” that was pushed by the Netanyahu government amid massive, unprecedented protests that have spread across the country since the beginning of 2023 and continued until before the devastating war on Gaza on October 7 last year.

source: Arabic Post