JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In a Tuesday press conference at Kfar Hamaccabiah, Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich revealed a program of substantial legal reforms which could drastically reduce judicial authority and, if enacted retroactively, could lead to the termination of Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu’s criminal trial.
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Smotrich said that acceptance of his proposals would be a precondition for his party joining a Netanyahu-led coalition following the November 1 elections.
The proposed changes to the legal system include a new override clause in Israeli law which would prevent the High Court of Justice from striking down Knesset legislation if it contravenes one of Israel’s Basic Laws, and give the government control over the appointment of all judges, including those for the Supreme Court.
Smotrich’s plan was greeted with sharp criticism from left and centrist parties, with Prime Minister Yair Lapid alleging that they emanated from Netanyahu who, he said, “has decided to destroy the legal system and the rule of law in Israel.”
Lapid added that “If this gang gets into power, they’ll make every effort to destroy Israeli democracy, to cancel the authority of the courts, to destroy the separation of powers in Israel. They don’t even bother to hide this anymore. It’s a deliberate campaign to cancel Netanyahu’s trial, and if they cancel Netanyahu’s trial by using political power that would mean that Israeli democracy is no longer Israeli democracy as we know it. We’re battling against this.”
Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar described the program as “a paradise for government corruption,” and said the reforms marked “the politicization of the legal system” and were simply a frame for cancelling Netanyahu’s trial. The Likud party responded that Smotrich’s proposals would “not be applied retroactively” and would not affect the legal proceedings against Netanyahu.
One of the central demands laid out by Smotrich is to abolish the offense of “fraud and breach of trust,” which he claims enables legal officials to interfere and wield control over the political system. Netanyahu is charged with this offense in all three of the cases for which he is currently on trial, along with a bribery charge in one of the cases.
Smotrich described Israel’s legal system as “sick” and criticized the lack of checks and balances to rein in the attorney general and state attorney’s office, as well as the legal impediments which prevent government departments from functioning and the intervention of the High Court of Justice in Knesset legislation. He also charged the legal system with being skewed against right-wing politicians and parties, which it sees as a threat to judicial autonomy.
Smotrich insisted that the changes he and his party would carry out were essential to keeping Israel “a Jewish and democratic state.”
Abolishing what he called the “fluid and undefined” fraud and breach of trust offense, he claimed, was essential in order to prevent the legal system from eliminating hostile politicians.
“Through using it, the ‘rule of law system’ can threaten elected officials, halt their activities, and settle the score with politicians who dare to step out from the lines drawn up for them by legal clerks and advisers,” the Religious Zionism platform states.
Another major reform proposed by Religious Zionism is an overhaul of the Judicial Selection Committee, which currently comprises three High Court judges, two government ministers, two members of Knesset, and two members of the Israel Bar Association.
In the past this has led to deals between members of the Bar Association, themselves close to the judiciary, and the High Court judges which have effectively neutralized the smaller number of elected officials on the committee.
Smotrich’s proposed reforms would change the makeup of the committee so that the government would essentially control six out of the nine committee members.
The party’s legal platform states that the panel would instead be composed of the president of the Supreme Court, the president of one of the country’s district courts and one of its magistrate’s courts, both of which would be selected by the justice minister, along with six ministers or MKs, four from the coalition and two from the opposition.
The justice minister would head the committee.
Smotrich has already expressed his party’s intention to claim the Justice Ministry portfolio in a new right-wing government.
The party platform states that after the override law is passed, it will promote legislation to allow “infiltrators ” — referring to asylum seekers and illegal migrant workers — to be expelled from the country; grant chareidi yeshiva students exemption from military service; and retroactively legalize settlements in Judea and Samaria built on alleged Palestinian land.
The new laws would allow government officials as well as members of Knesset to be immune from criminal prosecution unless the Knesset voted to rescind that immunity, and the High Court would not be able to annul such a vote.
Further proposals include splitting the attorney general’s position into three roles, whereby the attorney general would serve merely as the government’s legal adviser and would also become a political appointee instead of serving as a member of the civil service.
The power to file criminal indictments would be removed from the attorney general position and given over to a “prosecutor general” who would be appointed by the justice minister and would have authority over criminal proceedings and prosecutions.
A third position, that of state representative to the legal system, would also be created to represent the state in court and in other, non-criminal, legal proceedings including petitions against the government in the High Court.
The Religious Zionism party’s program would also see the establishment of an oversight body to supervise the activities of the law enforcement investigative services and the state attorney’s office “to ensure that there is no improper use” of those powers. The body would be under the jurisdiction of the Justice Minister and the Knesset Law Committee.