Israel’s parliament on Monday ratified the first bill of a judicial overhaul sought by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after last-gasp compromise efforts collapsed and failed to ease a constitutional crisis convulsing the country for months.
The amendment limiting the Supreme Court’s powers to void some government decisions if it deemed them “unreasonable” passed by 64-to-0 vote after opposition lawmakers abandoned the session in protest, some of them shouting: “For shame!”
Demonstrations against the amendment began early in the day with police dragging away protesters who had chained themselves to posts and blocked the road outside parliament. By evening, protesters had taken to the streets of cities across the country.
The amendment is part of broader judicial changes the government announced in January, soon after it was sworn in, setting off months of unprecedented nationwide protests and stirring concern among allies abroad for Israel’s democratic health. More deadlock loomed, however.
Within minutes of the vote, a political watchdog group and the centrist opposition leader said they would appeal against the law at the Supreme Court. Thousands of protesters who had converged on Jerusalem flooded a highway near parliament, scuffling with police who cleared the road by dragging them across the asphalt and using water cannons, including one that sprayed a foul-smelling substance.
The crisis has caused a deep divide in Israeli society and has seeped into the military, with protest leaders saying thousands of volunteer reservists would not report for duty if the government continues with the plans and former top brass warning that Israel’s war-readiness could be at risk. Justice Minister Yariv Levin, an architect of the reforms package cast by Netanyahu as needed to create more balance among branches of government, sounded undeterred.
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