Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel would enter "uncharted territory" if the Supreme Court struck down a recently passed "reasonableness" amendment, that's part of a contentious judicial reform, during an interview with CNN on Thursday evening.
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In a heated interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, the prime minister did not respond to a question on whether he would comply with the possible overturning of the law, which set out to limit judicial review of government and ministerial decisions on the basis of "reasonableness."
Video: Anti-reform protests in Jerusalem. Credit: Yoni Rikner
"What you're talking about is a situation, or a potential situation, in which, in American terms, the US Supreme Court would take a constitutional amendment and declare it unconstitutional. That's the kind of spiral you're talking about, and I hope it doesn't come to that," Netanyahu said.
He insisted that the Court had become too powerful and that the reshuffle would balance those powers with those of the government and the legislature.
"We had to put Israeli democracy back on an equal footing with other democracies. The essence of democracy is the balance between the will of the majority and the rights of the minority. This balance has been violated over the last 20 years, because we have the most activist court on the planet," Netanyahu said.
He also referred to the "internal debate going on right now in the United States about the powers of the Supreme Court, about whether it's abusing its powers, whether they should be curtailed."
"Does that make American democracy no longer a democracy? Does that make this debate unworthy? Does it make this issue a symbol of the fact that you personally are moving toward a dictatorship?" he said. "I don't want to minimize the situation or people's concerns, because many of them have been caught up in this spiral of fear. Israel will remain a democracy."
Asked whether he expected any consequences from Washington following the bill's passage, Netanyahu stressed that relations between the White House and his government remained strong and that President Joe Biden invited him for a meeting this autumn.
He also affirmed that he had no intention of removing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara from office, despite growing calls from the right-wing bloc to do so. Netanyahu indicated that he planned to use the new reasonableness law to reappoint the leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Aryeh Deri, who has a conviction due to tax offenses, as minister.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.p
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