Uproar in Parliament over Netanyahu's judicial reform plan
Jerusalem, February 13
Israeli lawmakers traded insults on Monday over government plans to overhaul the judiciary while tens of thousands of protesters gathered outside parliament, as the president warned the country was on the brink of “constitutional collapse”.
The plans, which would give right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greater control of appointments to the bench and weaken the Supreme Court’s ability to strike down legislation or rule against the executive, have triggered angry protests across Israel for weeks.
On Monday, the Knesset Constitution Committee voted to send the first chapter of the plan to the plenum for a first reading, after a rowdy start to the meeting in which several lawmakers were thrown out forcibly, to shouts of “shame, shame”.
As lawmakers traded calls of “fascist” and “traitor”, sang protest folk songs and even cried inside the Knesset, tens of thousands of protesters massed outside.
Netanyahu, currently on trial on corruption charges which he denies, says the changes are needed to restore balance in the system and curb activist judges who have overreached their powers to interfere in the political sphere.
“I call on the heads of the opposition: Stop it. Stop deliberately dragging the country into anarchy,” he said in a statement. “Most Israeli citizens do not want anarchy,” he added. — Reuters
