The Knesset plenum on Monday afternoon approved changes to the reasonableness standard, passing the bill with a majority of 64 Knesset members.
As the bill passed its second and third Knesset readings, opposition MKs yelled, "shame!" and "destruction!"
The reasonableness standard is an amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary, and allows the court to rule against the validity of elected official's decisions that in a justice's opinion are beyond the scope of what a reasonable authority would undertake. It passed its first Knesset reading earlier this month, and is now being prepared for its second and third Knesset readings.
Ministers Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism) and Yoav Gallant (Likud) pushed for a last-minute compromise, despite the harsh opposition by ministers Yariv Levin (Likud) and Itamar Ben Gvir (Otzma Yehudit). The two also pushed to delay the legislation for judicial appointments for a period of more than six months.
The Prime Minister weighed the suggestion and even stepped out to discuss it with a number of ministers, in an attempt to soften the legislation. The President's Residence was also involved in the negotiations.
The attempts to reach a compromise between the coalition and the opposition continued until the last moment, but opposition leader MK Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) announced that negotiations had failed and blew up the talks.
In light of the opposition's position, it was decided to continue to advance the bill as originally planned.
Betzalel Smotrich is a very savvy politician, and he no doubt knows what he is doing... But I don't understand what he is doing.
ReplyDeleteThe left never reciprocates what we go soft. And allowing judges to decide reasonableness, is antithetical to democracy and common sense...so just pass the bill, and move on!