AUGUST 10 • 2023 | 39

ERETZ

I

srael’s parliament, the Knesset, passed 
the first part in the planned overhaul 
of the country’s judiciary system on 
July 27. What does this new legislation 
do, and why is it so controversial?
The Knesset passed legislation that 
abolishes the “reasonableness doctrine,” 
which the Supreme Court of Israel has 
employed to evaluate government poli-
cies. It is a practice used by high courts 
in Australia, Canada and the United 
Kingdom, among other countries. 
The doctrine operates exactly as it 
sounds: the court determines whether 
a given government policy is sensible 
and sound. For example, when Prime 
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed 
Shas party leader Aryeh Deri as minister 
of finance, the Supreme Court deter-
mined — based on the reasonableness 
doctrine — that he was not eligible to 
serve in the position due to previous 
convictions of bribery, fraud, breach of 
trust, money laundering and various tax 
offenses. 
Critics of the package fear that it will 
weaken the judicial system in favor 
of the government and the Knesset. 
Because Israel has a parliamentary 
system, proposed reforms such as 
undermining judicial oversight and 
changing the way judges are appointed 
will undermine the balance of power 
between Israel’s branches of govern-
ment. As a result, opponents argue, the 
changes underway will destabilize Israeli 
democracy. Proponents of the reforms 
argue the opposite, making the case that 
the judiciary has become an unaccount-
able branch of government that has 
usurped the power of the Knesset and 
the government in setting policy.
The divisiveness of the debate over 
judicial reforms reflects the fact that 
Israelis have moved beyond debating the 
relative merits of technical changes to 
the judiciary and are now arguing over 

a range of difficult issues, including the 
role of religion in Israeli society, nation-
al identity and the defining qualities 
of Israel’s polity. All of these are inter-
twined with debates about Israel’s Jewish 
and democratic character. In this way, 
the judicial reform package has spurred 
a high-stakes national conversation 
about what it means to be Israeli. 
The resulting divisions have raised 
concerns about Israeli security as mili-
tary reservists have vowed not to show 
up for duty as a result of the changes, 
how the current instability will affect the 
Israeli economy and the possibility of 
violence among Israelis.

WHO IS BEHIND THE PLANS TO 
REFORM THE JUDICIARY, AND 
WHAT DO THEY AIM TO ACHIEVE?
In addition to Prime Minister 
Netanyahu, the Israeli officials most 
closely associated with the judicial 
reform project are Minister of Justice 
Yariv Levin, who is a member of the 
Likud Party, and Simcha Rotman, who is 
a member of the Religious Zionist Party 
and chair of the Knesset’s Constitution, 
Law and Justice Committee. Levin and 
Rotman are just the most high-profile 
of a group of right-wing and right-of-
center politicians who have sought to 

overhaul the judiciary. They have been 
aided in this effort by an organization 
called the Kohelet Policy Forum, which 
is backed financially by American and 
Israeli citizens and states that it aims to 
“secure Israel’s future as the nation-state 
of the Jewish people, to strengthen rep-
resentative democracy, and to broaden 
individual liberty and free-market prin-
ciples in Israel.”

ARE ANY CHALLENGES TO THE 
NEW LAW LIKELY TO SUCCEED?
Given that Netanyahu and his coalition 
government hold a 64-seat majority in 
the 120-seat Knesset, it is unlikely that 
opposition parties can do anything with-
in the legislature to stop judicial reform. 
 The images of hundreds of thousands 
of Israelis protesting over many months 
have been arresting, but despite this 
pressure, popular demonstrations have 
done nothing to prevent judicial reform 
from proceeding. 
The Israeli Supreme Court has 
announced that it will hear petitions 
challenging the new law that limits its 
ability to strike down government deci-
sions in September. 
The announcement paves the way for 
a possible constitutional crisis in 
Israel. 

Israel’s Judicial Reforms: 
What to Know

STEVEN A. COOK 
COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 

