Israeli Justice Minister threatens to renew contentious judicial overhaul initiative

Jerusalem [Israel], December 15 (ANI/TPS): Raising the spectre of a constitutional crisis, Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin threatened to renew a judicial overhaul stalled by war, accusing the High Court of Justice of overstepping its authority by undermining the Knesset's legislative and the government's executive powers in a lengthy Facebook post on Saturday night.
The post came days after the High Court on Thursday ordered Levin to convene the Judicial Selection Committee by January 16 to appoint a new court president.
Levin's Facebook post called the justices "dictators" and did not indicate whether he would obey the ruling.
"The government acted responsibly and with the outbreak of the war suspended all engagement in reform. The court, with the utmost irresponsibility, decided to take advantage of this to continue to take over the powers of the Knesset and the government. Today, former State Attorney Moshe Lador joined this irresponsibility, calling on soldiers to announce that they will refuse to serve," Levin wrote. "This is an unacceptable reality. The court is urging the Knesset and the government, with no choice but to act at this time in order to restore its powers to normal."
Levin was referring to comments made earlier that evening by Lador who said reservists "not only have the right but the obligation to tell a state aggressively and bullyingly pushing its agenda: 'You are turning into dictators. Therefore, I will not fly your planes.'" He described refusing reserve duty as "a legitimate tool" to prevent what he called turning Israel "from a democracy to a dictatorship."
Levin wrote, "They are closing the doors of the court to anyone who does not think like them. They left us no choice. It cannot continue like this. We also have rights."
The appointments of judges and court officials have been paralyzed for two years as the governing coalition pursued a deeply controversial judicial reform initiative that sent thousands of Israelis to the streets for protests and counter-protests. But the initiative was frozen with the formation of a unity government following Hamas's October 7 attack.
The overhaul, which Levin is the architect of, includes changes to the system for appointing and removing judges, giving the Knesset the ability to override certain High Court rulings, changing the way legal advisors are appointed to government ministries, and restricting the ability of judges to apply the legal principle of "reasonableness."
Supporters of the legal overhaul say they wanted to end years of judicial overreach while opponents describe the proposals as anti-democratic.
Supreme Court President Esther Hayut and Justice Anat Baron retired in October 2023 when they both reached the age of 70, the maximum age for Israeli judges. No successors were appointed. Justice Uzi Vogelman who was serving as Acting Court President, stepped down from the court in October after turning 70, leaving the court short three justices.
By tradition, the senior justice on the court is tapped for the position of Court President. That puts Justice Yitzhak Amit, who has served on the court since 2009 next in line to lead the court and is now Acting Court President. But Levin is seeking to appoint the more conservative Justice Yosef Elron, who joined the court in 2017. (ANI/TPS)