The Israeli Parliament approves the first law of the controversial judicial reform amid a wave of protests

The Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) has today definitively approved the law that annuls the doctrine of reasonableness, the first law of the legislative package of the controversial judicial reform promoted by the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu and that has caused a wave of demonstrations throughout the country for months.

The law has thus gone ahead with 64 votes in favor of all the deputies of the parties of the government coalition and zero against, since the 56 deputies of the opposition bloc have decided to be absent.

“We have taken the first step in the important historical process of correcting the legal system and restoring the powers that were taken from the government and the Knesset for many years,” Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the architect of judicial reform, said after the law was passed. Before the vote, Levin has indicated that this law “will restore the balance between government authorities and respect for the will of the voters.”

The doctrine of reasonableness, now annulled, allowed the Supreme Court to review and revoke government decisions or appointments and is seen by the protest movement as a fundamental democratic guarantee against abuses of power.

19 arrested in the protests

The law was voted on in a plenary session that began this Sunday, after more than 30 hours of tense debates between the government and the opposition.. At the same time, thousands of demonstrators have been camped out in front of the Knesset since Saturday night in protest against the reform, seen as a threat to democracy because it undermines the separation of powers and the independence of Justice.

For the moment, the mobilizations, the largest in the country's history, have resulted in 19 people being arrested “for violating public order” and 5 injured, who have already been transferred to the hospital.. The demonstrations, gathered in a nearby park near the parliament, have tried to block streets, block access to the Chamber and have caused some altercations with the Police, who have had to resort to water cannons and agents mounted on horseback to disperse those gathered.

“The general idea of the Police is to protect citizens, but here we see the opposite,” said Tomer Naveh, 52, an Army captain for more than 30 years and who was among the protesters this Monday and has criticized the harshness of the police repression.

Negotiation attempts

Given the strong division generated, in the last 48 hours there have been several attempts at negotiations, promoted by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, for the government and the opposition to reach a consensus agreement, but they have failed again. “Our main condition was to protect Israeli democracy, but with this government it is impossible to reach agreements that preserve Israeli democracy,” said Yair Lapid, the opposition leader.

“They want to destroy the State, destroy democracy, destroy Israel's security, the unity of the Israeli people and our international relations,” added Lapid, who has accused the government of being the “most irresponsible in history.”

Hours before the vote, Herzog once again appealed to the “understanding” and “responsibility” of the parties to reach a consensus in the face of what he has described as a “national emergency” in the face of the deep social fracture that the reform has caused.

Herzog thus met this Sunday separately with Netanyahu and with the opposition leaders to resume the negotiations that began in April, but which broke down in June when the government decided to go ahead unilaterally with the reform.

And it was this movement that precisely revitalized the protests, which have not ceased for seven months and have included massive demonstrations in recent weeks.. In total, more than 550,000 people have taken to the streets throughout the country for the approval of this reform. The opposition movement has also had strong social pressure on unions to call a general strike and more than 10,000 reservists refusing to volunteer for service.