February 8, 2025

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JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday held the first of three conclusive hearings on the legality of the judicial overhaul led by Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government after the country’s attorney general expressed strong opposition to the plan. Delayed.

In the eight months since the coalition came to power, Netanyahu’s ally, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, has refused to convene a committee to select the country’s judges, leaving several judgeships open across the country.

Attorney General Gail Baharao-Miara’s attorney will now argue against the justice minister’s attorney in court, a situation experts say is highly extraordinary.

Levin, a key architect of the overhaul, wants to change the nature of the selection committee to give Netanyahu’s far-right ruling coalition final authority over the appointment of judges, which is part of a wider judicial overhaul proposed by Netanyahu’s government.

Petitions challenging Levin’s denial were to be heard on Thursday, before the court delayed the hearing for 12 days. Under normal circumstances, experts said, Levin’s position would have been represented by the attorney general.

But when Baharao-Miara made it clear that he opposed the overhaul and Levin’s position, he requested a delay of the hearing so that he would have time to seek independent advice.

“It’s all very extraordinary,” said Amichai Cohen, professor of constitutional law and senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank. He said, till the present government assumed power, the Attorney General and the government rarely held separate posts. “Usually there is a dialogue in which a unified position is adopted,” he said.

The Supreme Court adjourned the hearing till 19 September.

In a petition filed with the court on Monday, Baharao-Miara said that Levin’s actions resulted in several vacancies. If the selection committee is not convened by the end of the year, according to the filing, more than 53 judge positions across the country will be vacant — more than 5% of the national bench.

Levin has until Sunday to obtain independent counsel and present his case in court.

The hearing is one of three important cases Israel’s Supreme Court will hear this month on the legality of judicial reform. The judiciary’s rulings could set the stage for a constitutional crisis if Netanyahu’s government chooses not to comply.

The highest-profile case is set for September 12, with the court hearing challenges to the coalition’s move to scrap the “reasonableness standard” in July.

The standard is used by the court to quash parliamentary decisions and appointments on the grounds that they are unfair.

Netanyahu’s coalition, dominated by religious and ultra-nationalist parties, says the country’s unelected judges have too much power and should be reined in. Critics of the overhaul, who represent broad sections of Israeli society, say the plan will destroy the country’s system. Checks and balances and the concentration of power in the hands of Netanyahu and his allies.

For more than eight months, thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to protest the overhaul, the most sustained demonstrations the country has ever seen.

The coalition says judges should not be allowed to overturn major decisions of elected officials. Critics of the government say that removing the standard of reasonableness opens the way for corruption and unfair appointments of unqualified peers to key positions.

Source: www.bing.com

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