Justice: Netanyahu gets the reform approved first, the battle moves to the Supreme Court

Ignoring 29 weeks of street protests, the Israeli right passed the "law on reasonableness" to limit the High Court's room for manoeuvre. Now, however, he will discuss the appeals presented precisely against this provision, in all likelihood formally opening the clash of powers in a country that does not have a constitution. Israeli newspapers publish black front pages.

Tel Aviv (AsiaNews) - A deeply divided country. With an institutional clash that - despite the solid vote of the majority that supports Netanyahu - promises to be far from over. This summarizes the political situation in Israel in the aftermath of the Knesset approvalof the first important piece of the controversial justice reform desired by the government which sees Likud allied with religious parties and far-right nationalist movements.

Despite 29 weeks of street demonstrations (which continued tonight with police charges) and the concerns expressed by President Isaac Herzog, Washington and many Jewish communities in the diaspora who have repeatedly called for compromise, Netanyahu (recovering from surgery to install a by-pass) has opted for a battle in the courtroom.

Yesterday afternoon he received the approval of the so-called "law on reasonableness" with 64 votes in favor out of 120 (those of the majority) and all the oppositions who left the hall without voting in protest. Several Israeli newspapers chose to underline the standoff by coming out today with black front page and the headline "A black day for democracy".

The measure adopted directly affects the balance between state powers, limiting the possibility of intervention by the Supreme Court on the laws approved by the Knesset. The matter is very delicate because - due to the fierce opposition of religious parties, who do not want to contradict the Torah - Israel has never adopted its own constitution.

It has only 13 Basic Laws, rules approved by qualified majorities in the Israeli parliament, which dictate the electoral rules, the institutional set-up and some fundamental principles that every ordinary law must comply with. But these are very limited areas and for this reason - on several occasions - the Supreme Court in recent years has referred to the principle of "reasonableness" to stop rules which, while not going against any of the Basic Laws, had been deemed by the judges to be in contrast with the most elementary rules of fairness and justice.

Now the Knesset - under pressure above all from the extreme right-wing nationalist parties, which have repeatedly found in the Supreme Court at least a barrier to proposals that are openly racist or harmful to the rights recognized to Palestinians by other provisions of the Israeli legal system - with an ordinary law (therefore without the qualified majority required for a new Basic Law) has established that the judges will no longer be able to invoke the criterion of "reasonableness" to reject laws voted in parliament.

However, the match is far from over: as soon as the law was approved, an association of jurists - the Movement for Government Quality in Israel - filed a petition calling for the Supreme Court to intervene against the new law.

The president of the highest judicial body Esther Hayut, who was in Germany yesterday for an institutional appointment, immediately returned to Israel announcing that the appeal will be examined as soon as possible. It is very probable, therefore, that the Court will rule in the coming days against the "law on reasonableness" also officially opening the conflict between the judiciary and the legislative power.

Another heated issue also remains on the table: the position of the state attorney general, Galia Baharav-Miara, openly opposed to the justice policy of the Netanyahu government. She most certainly will not defend the rule in a Supreme Court hearing.

For this reason, the executive could invoke the law that has just been approved to assume the power to remove it. But it would be a further strain on the balance between the powers of the Israeli system.

• Israel. Tel Aviv
• Knesset
• Justice