(Jerusalem) The Israeli Parliament adopted Tuesday in first reading the derogation clause, one of the most disputed provisions of the reform of the judicial system which divides the country.
The bill passed shortly before 3 a.m. (9 p.m. ET) by a vote of 61 to 52. A second and third reading vote are still needed before it becomes law.
The bill adopted at first reading tightens the conditions allowing the Supreme Court to invalidate an ordinary law and allows Parliament to protect a law against any annulment by a legislative process not requiring a simple majority (61 deputies out of 120): it is the notwithstanding clause, which makes it possible to avoid the control of the Supreme Court.
Earlier, parliament passed a first-reading bill that drastically reduced the possibility that a sitting prime minister could be declared unfit to hold office.
Since the presentation at the beginning of January of the bill, carried by the cabinet formed at the end of December by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, one of the most right-wing governments in the history of Israel, demonstrations have followed one another each week across the country to to denounce what critics of the reform qualify as anti-democratic drift.
In general, the reform project, as it stands, would considerably limit the prerogatives of the Supreme Court and would in fact give the majority political coalition the power to appoint judges.
The government says the reform is necessary to restore a balance of power between elected officials and an “independent” but not “omnipotent” judiciary, in the words of Mr. Netanyahu, who accuses the Supreme Court of being politicized.
According to its detractors, the project on the contrary carries the risk of a drift towards a model of democracy in Hungary.
On Thursday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called for a halt to the current legislative process, calling the current draft a “threat to the foundations of democracy.”
Mr. Herzog has begun mediation between the opposition and the government with a view to reaching a more consensual text likely to be adopted by Parliament and to allay the concerns expressed by opponents of the reform.
On Monday, a compromise proposal was presented to the Law Commission by a former justice minister, a university director and a law professor.
The president of this Commission, Simcha Rothman, considered that it could “be a basis for negotiations”.
