Jerusalem: Jerusalem awoke to the sight of a long red line painted by protesters along roads leading to Israel’s Supreme Court, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a compromise deal for his government’s planned judicial overhaul.
The hard-right government’s drive to limit Supreme Court powers while increasing its own power in selecting judges has caused alarm at home and abroad about the country’s democratic checks and balances. Anti-reform protests have swelled for weeks.
President Isaac Herzog warned on Wednesday the country was at a turning point and stressed he’d been involved in mediation efforts and speaking with “thousands of people” for weeks.
“A civil war is a red line,” the president said. “I won’t let that happen at any cost or any way.” He said Israel was “in the depths of a real crisis” but also “in front of a huge opportunity” and “at a fork in the road.”
“Most Israelis want a plan that will bring both justice and peace,” he said.
If the initial proposal passes, it will mean greater government sway in selecting judges and limit the power of the Supreme Court to strike down legislation.
Netanyahu says it will correct an imbalance that he says has given the courts too much sway in how the country is governed.
Read the article by Mayan Lubell in The Sydney Morning Herald (Reuters, AP).