Published: 21 July 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
The Knesset is set to pass the first bill in its controversial judicial overhaul next week. Women’s rights and media freedom are government’s next targets.
Amid tumultuous scenes, a Knesset committee on Wednesday night approved the controversial bill drastically limiting use of the reasonableness judicial standard. The decision paves the way for the coalition to pass the first part of its far-reaching judicial overhaul next week.
The second and third readings on the bill, an amendment to Basic Law: Judiciary, will begin on Sunday in the Knesset plenum, and the bill is expected to be approved and passed into law on Monday or Tuesday.
The approval came at the end of several marathon sessions by the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, which had to slog through 20,000 objections seemingly meant to clog the legislative process and stop the government from racing ahead with the bill, after compromise talks collapsed last month.
With hope of a last-minute reprieve and concern about the next wave of attacks on democracy, protesters stepped up resistance this week.
Tens of thousands blocked roads in a Day of Disruption. Police used water cannons and attempted physical removal of protesters at the Azrieli intersection in Tel Aviv. Healthcare workers held a two-hour “warning strike” but threatened an indefinite strike. A group of 161 elite reservists announced they would stop their volunteer reserve service if the reasonableness standard law passes.
Women’s rights emerged as a major issue this week. Bonot Alternativa (Building an Alternative), the group that dresses as handmaids from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, led a national women's strike, drawing attention to the government’s plans to hand more control to rabbinical courts.
The Chief Rabbinate's offices in Tel Aviv, Ashdod, Petah Tikva, Haifa, Rehovot and Jerusalem were the locations of choice for thousands of demonstrators.
