What is the next stage of the Israeli government’s judicial reform?
MICHAEL STARR
The next bill that the coalition will likely promote is on the Judicial Selection Committee, perhaps the most contentious issue of judicial reform.
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With the passing of the reasonableness standard bill on Monday, leaders on both sides of the debate have indicated that they believe that it is a non-decisive battle in a longer war.
The next bill that the coalition will likely promote, if negotiations don’t resume as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed on Monday night, is on the Judicial Selection Committee.
The Judicial Selection Committee is perhaps the most contentious issue of judicial reform, a matter where experts, NGOs and negotiating parties have said were unable to even approach consensus.
Critics of the current system believe that the panel for appointing judges is not accountable enough to voters, and that the Israel Bar Association and judiciary representatives on the panel form a self-interested majority block that in essence allows judges to self-select their replacements and promotions.
The coalition submitted a bill to change the composition and rules of the committee at the beginning of the year, but its legislative path was blocked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in later March just before its final Knesset readings, in response to massive protests that brought the country to a standstill.
The bill would have removed the Bar Association representatives and introduced an expanded panel with more elected officials. Anti-reformists have noted that the roster and new voting rules would have created an automatic majority for any coalition.
Israeli media reported that Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who first announced the reform plan in January, said in closed conversations that after the Knesset recess that starts on July 30, they coalition would next advance the proposal on the Judicial Selection Committee.
Levin is also under pressure to alter the composition as soon as possible. The justice minister said that he would not convene the Judicial Selection Committee until the panel had been reformed.
Legislation amid judicial reform negotiations
Judicial reform negotiations broke down in June over the coalition’s refusal to convene the judicial selection committee to begin appointing judges. This came after the June 20 Bar election saw an anti-reformist camp assume the chairmanship and the majority of the National Council that selects the Bar’s Judicial Selection Committee representatives.
Following this, the Knesset was set to choose its own representatives. Only an opposition member, Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar was chosen, while the second seat remained vacant for weeks until Otzma Yehudit MK Yitzhak Kreuzer was elected. The opposition claimed that the delays were part of measures to avoid convening the committee.
Levin has continued to delay the convening of the committee, but now faces added pressure with Yesh Atid and NGOs on Tuesday filing petitions to the High Court of Justice demanding that the panel be assembled.
The opposition previously said that it would not return to the negotiation table until the committee was convened, the commitment to this precondition may waver with the passing of the first judicial reform bill. If the opposition remains steadfast about this precondition, Netanyahu’s proposal for negotiations until November may remain unheeded, and another bill may be put forward.
It is unlikely, however, that the coalition will advance the previous Judicial Selection Bill. The old bill has been on the Knesset table since March, and could have been advanced with a renewed judicial reform push, but the coalition declined to do so – instead opting for a new bill on a less contentious issue.
At the end of June, Netanyahu told the Wall Street Journal that he would seek to revise the Judicial Selection Committee. This is supported by the coalition’s decision not to advance the old legislation.
While the reasonableness saga is over with the Knesset recess at the end of the month — pending High Court petitions — and dependent on what happens in the months leading up to the Knesset’s return, a new Judicial Selection Committee chapter may begin for the reform.
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