As government advances judicial overhaul, President Herzog works on compromise

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog is continuing to conduct meetings with legal experts who are attempting to formulate a compromise on judicial reforms, which would serve as a starting point for direct negotiations between the opposition and the government. 

“We are closer than ever to the possibility of an agreed-upon framework,” earlier this week,” Herzog said earlier this week.

According to Israeli media, the team of legal experts conducting meetings behind closed doors includes former justice minister Daniel Friedmann, former dean of the law faculty of Bar-Ilan University Professor Yedidia Stern, Prof. Yuval Elbashan, and former head of Israel’s National Security Council, Giora Eiland.

The most contentious issues of the reforms are the make-up of the Judicial Selection Committee, which the governments wants to have control over, as well as the “override clause”, which would allow a simple majority of 61 lawmakers in Knesset to override High Court rulings.

Herzog, who has previously warned that Israel is facing a constitutional crisis, criticised the government’s reforms, saying they “endanger the democratic foundations of the State of Israel,” as they currently stand.

The opposition, headed by Yair Lapid, has so far refused to enter into direct negotiations with the government over its reforms unless it halts the legislative blitz.

The government, however, has rejected this outright. Hearings on its judicial reforms have been planned every day next week at the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Chairman headed by Religious Zionist lawmaker Simcha Rothman.

“Look at what Rothman did today. He put out a schedule for legislation next week. They’re continuing to legislate even as they say, ‘dialogue, dialogue.’ It’s a fraud. They need to stop the legislation. The nation is being torn apart. The economy is falling apart. What is the matter with them?” Lapid said.

Meanwhile, Rhotman and Justice Minister Yariv Levin issued a joint statement, saying: “There is broad consensus among the public, academia, hi-tech, and the economy, and among Knesset members, for the need for broad and comprehensive reform and for its foundational principles.”

Some lawmakers from the government and the opposition have however broken with their ranks and called for immediate negotiations.

Last week, Gadi Eisenkot and Chilli Tropper from the opposition party National Unity and Likud lawmakers Danny Danon and Yuli Edelstein signed a letter, saying: “Public and elected representatives have an obligation to act immediately to end the disputes and to reach an agreement, and above all to stop the danger of disintegration that lies before us as a society and as a country.”

As Herzog continues to gather legal experts and community leaders to formulate a compromise, organisers behind the weekly mass demonstrations announced that Thursday would be “a day of resistance to the dictatorship, during which traffic in Israel will be disrupted: in the air, at sea, and on land.”

Rallies are planned across the country, with major road blocks on Israeli highways and protests outside Levin’s private home at night.

Anger at the government also spread to the Israeli military in the last week, with hundreds of doctors in the reserve and reservists in the elite 8,200 intelligence unit announcing they would stop showing up for duty unless the judicial overhaul is halted.