The Israeli Supreme Court rejected the so-called “Reasonableness clause“, the key element of the controversy judicial reform undertaken by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. The amendment, approved at the end of July amid protests from the opposition in the Knesset and thousands of people on the streets of Tel Aviv, effectively weakened the Supreme Court itself. In fact, the text prevented judges from challenge, based on that principle, measures from the government, the prime minister and the ministers as has happened so far. Furthermore, the government had qualified the “Reasonability Clause” as a fundamental law.
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The Court split in half: eight of the 15 judges who have examined the issue have expressed their opinion against that amendment. Twelve of the 15 justices also ruled that the Supreme Court has the prerogative Of delete a fundamental law. It is the first time that the Supreme Court has intervened on an amendment to the Basic Law, which has a quasi-constitutional status in Israel.
The “Reasonability Clause” was the only measure adopted so far of the Netanyahu government’s controversial judicial reform. The law prohibited all courts, and the High Court, from reviewing government measures based on the legal standard of reasonableness. Judicial reform has divided Israel, with massive demonstrations Of protestbefore the attack of Hamas il October 7 which triggered the war on Gaza.
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Some ministers of the Netanyhau government, the most right-wing in the history of Israel, had anticipated not wanting to respect a possible failure of the law on reasonableness. But this happened before the outbreak of the conflict. It is not clear whether today the ministers themselves are ready to risk it institutional clash while the war is going on. The final approval came despite large protests throughout the country that had been ongoing for months, which had also involved the reservists of the armed forces.