Despite Judicial Reform Freeze, Bills Submitted To Knesset For Final Reading: ‘Technical Procedure’

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Israel’s political turmoil has yet to subside despite the prime minister’s announcement of a freeze on judicial reform legislation.

In the wake of Netanyahu’s speech, calling for discussion and conciliation, opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz assembled a team of negotiators who can sit with President Herzog and Likud negotiators to try and reach a compromise which would be acceptable to all sides. However several factors could prevent any meaningful discussions at the president’s residence.

After Herzog announced his own version of judicial reforms a few weeks ago, the right wing accused him of not being an objective negotiator but rather of caving in to almost all of the opposition’s demands. Thus the Likud has so far denied preparing a team to negotiate under the president’s supervision.

Moreover the opposition was incensed to find that the bills voted on in Monday’s committee meetings have been submitted to the Knesset plenum for their final readings. Despite the coalition claiming that this was a regular procedure for any bill which has passed the committee and did not imply that the bills will be submitted for a vote, the opposition leaders feel that Netanyahu’s willing to talk is tempered by the threat that at any given moment the laws can be presented in the plenum and passed. Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman called on Lapid and Gantz to cease negotiations with Netanyahu “while he is holding a gun to our temples.”

“As I warned, Netanyahu lied again”, Liberman, formerly Netanyahu’s office director-general, warned. “Instead of going to a real conversation at the president’s residence and repairing the fissure within Israel, the coalition is spitting in the face of the public and placed the Basic Law: Judiciary and Courts in the Knesset, meaning they can submit them for vote at any given time.”

Additionally, the leaders of the public protests against the judicial reforms said that they will not stop the protests despite the freeze – until the laws are shelved. The leaders warned that the government is “simply putting us to sleep until it passes the laws.”