Israel: first negotiations on the justice reform project
Benyamin Netanyahu's government wishes to adopt a more consensual text during the summer parliamentary session, which will begin on April 30.
The prime minister Israeli Binyamin Netanyahu has decided to take a break from examining the justice reform project. (File photo)
Israeli President Isaac Herzog announced on Tuesday the opening of a first “dialogue meeting” between majority and opposition parties on the justice reform project that is deeply dividing the country. .
The President is currently meeting with the working teams representing the ruling coalition, [the opposition party] Yesh Atid and the National Unity Party [other opposition formation] for a first dialogue meeting at his residence, according to an official press release published shortly before 8 p.m. local time.
President Isaac Herzog (File Photo)
Yaïr Lapid and Benny Gantz, respective leaders of these two centrist parties, announced on Monday evening that they were ready to dialogue with the majority, under the aegis of Mr. Herzog, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had decided to x27;a pause in the examination of the justice reform project, in order to give a chance to a real dialogue with a view to adopting a more consensual text during the summer parliamentary session before its ;open April 30.
Mr. Herzog has been trying for several weeks to mediate between supporters of the reform and his opponents, while the protest has only grown since the announcement of the project in early January.
The Likud (right), party of Mr. Netanyahu, confirmed its participation in the meeting, without it being immediately known whether other parties of the majority were present.
The announcement Monday evening by Mr. Netanyahu of a pause in the current legislative process, after a day of intensified protest, the start of a general strike and the appearance tensions within the majority, was greeted with skepticism by the protesters as well as by several political commentators.
Protests have been going on for 12 weeks in Israel. (File photo)
According to Nahum Barnea, columnist for the daily Yediot Aharonot, the Prime Minister was able to transform with pretty words a crushing defeat in a draw.
“Whatever he says or will say, few people believe him, I believe the trust in him is not great [including on the right]. »
— Nahum Barnea, columnist for the daily Yediot Aharonot
Supported by one of the most right-wing governments in Israel's history, the justice reform project gave birth to one of the largest popular mobilization movements in the country.
If they accepted the mediation of Mr. Herzog, MM. Lapid and Gantz also warned the government against any deception.
Alluding to the bill on the composition of the commission responsible for selecting judges, one of the most challenged by the reform, their two parties specified in a joint press release that they would immediately leave the negotiating table if this text is put on the program of Parliament.
For the government, the reform aims to rebalance powers by reducing the prerogatives of the Supreme Court, which the executive considers politicized, in favor of Parliament.
Its detractors believe that contrary that the reform risks leading to an illiberal or authoritarian drift.
The announcement to suspend the reform review in parliament was preceded by lengthy negotiations between Netanyahu and his far-right partners, including Homeland Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. , who, according to the press, had threatened to leave the government in the event of a break in the reform.
The Israeli Parliament during the first reading of the justice reform bill. (File photo)
Mr. Ben Gvir's party has announced the signing of an agreement between the two men, granting the minister the creation of a civilian national guard under his authority, and on which no details have yet been released. was communicated.
It's a victory for the protesters but the one who really bent Netanyahu and trampled him was Itamar Ben Gvir [ …], he obtained from him an outrageous promise: the creation of a militia that will be under his command, denounces Yossi Verter, political correspondent of Haaretz, on the front page of the left-leaning daily.
For Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Institute for Democracy, a think tank, it is about x27; a ceasefire perhaps to regroup, reorganize and then, potentially, charge forward.
Several members of the ruling coalition assure that the reform will be voted on at term.
Thus, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionism party, assured Monday after Mr. Netanyahu's speech that the reform [was] going to move forward and the necessary changes in the judiciary and Israeli democracy would come.
One of the collectives behind the protests against the reform announced the lawsuit of the challenge as long as the judicial coup is not completely stopped. Demonstrations are scheduled for Tuesday evening in Tel Aviv and outside Mr. Hezog's residence in Jerusalem.
