JERUSALEM: Israeli lawyers held a leadership election on Tuesday with an eye on the candidates’ potential influence on the makeup of a panel to select judges, which is at the core of a contested bid for prime minister. benjamin netanyahu To transform the courts.
Israel Bar Association Provides two of the nine members of the Judicial Appointments Committee. Others are a mix of Supreme Court judges, cabinet ministers and MPs to encourage transactions in bench picks.
Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition wants to expand the panel to give the government more power – amid reform proposals that have sparked unprecedented nationwide protests and unusually intense public scrutiny of Barr’s role.
Candidates for Bar President Boundless Bacher, who has openly identified with the anti-reform demonstrations, and Effie Naveh, a conservative former justice minister confidante who supported reining in alleged overreach by the Supreme Court.
Netanyahu has not commented on the Bar election, the results of which are due on Wednesday. It has been front-page news in Israel and featured a spray of campaign robocalls and text messages — including non-lawyers — by at least one candidate.
‘belligerent anarchy’
Right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told reporters on Monday he came out against Bachar, branding him a “prominent leftist among the leaders of the unbridled, extremist, fractious and belligerent anarchy in the streets in recent months”.
Bachar denies a partisan motive, saying that lawyers of all stripes take back their pledge to prevent a “political takeover by government of the Judicial Appointments Committee”. Naveh has said that, if elected, he would not be a “representative” of anyone.
Netanyahu announced he would resume the judicial overhaul this week after suspending it in March to enable settlement talks – so far fruitless – with opposition parties. They accuse Netanyahu of trying to subvert the courts while he argues his innocence in a long-running corruption trial.
The coalition argues the reform will balance the branches of government, and plans Wednesday to begin work on a new bill to limit some of the Supreme Court’s powers.
Israel Bar Association Provides two of the nine members of the Judicial Appointments Committee. Others are a mix of Supreme Court judges, cabinet ministers and MPs to encourage transactions in bench picks.
Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition wants to expand the panel to give the government more power – amid reform proposals that have sparked unprecedented nationwide protests and unusually intense public scrutiny of Barr’s role.
Candidates for Bar President Boundless Bacher, who has openly identified with the anti-reform demonstrations, and Effie Naveh, a conservative former justice minister confidante who supported reining in alleged overreach by the Supreme Court.
Netanyahu has not commented on the Bar election, the results of which are due on Wednesday. It has been front-page news in Israel and featured a spray of campaign robocalls and text messages — including non-lawyers — by at least one candidate.
‘belligerent anarchy’
Right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told reporters on Monday he came out against Bachar, branding him a “prominent leftist among the leaders of the unbridled, extremist, fractious and belligerent anarchy in the streets in recent months”.
Bachar denies a partisan motive, saying that lawyers of all stripes take back their pledge to prevent a “political takeover by government of the Judicial Appointments Committee”. Naveh has said that, if elected, he would not be a “representative” of anyone.
Netanyahu announced he would resume the judicial overhaul this week after suspending it in March to enable settlement talks – so far fruitless – with opposition parties. They accuse Netanyahu of trying to subvert the courts while he argues his innocence in a long-running corruption trial.
The coalition argues the reform will balance the branches of government, and plans Wednesday to begin work on a new bill to limit some of the Supreme Court’s powers.