With just one month until Israel celebrates its 75th anniversary, former Mossad director Tamir Pardo says the country is “on the verge of collapse” as the first reading of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial reforms were passed in the Knesset plenum this week.
Pardo, who led Mossad from 2011-2015, wrote on the Jerusalem Press Club website: “The current divisive leadership, on the contrary, which is struggling to tear us apart from within, brings this state to a verge of extinction, ignoring the fact that our options to halt are running short.
"One cannot know for certain if there is even still time to stop now, before we fall off the cliff.”
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Reform bill protests (Getty Images)
The judiciary bill, which took until the early hours on Tuesday morning to pass, weakens the Supreme Court, protects the prime minister from being removed over non-physical or mental reasons, and allows for more settlements in the northern occupied West Bank to be built.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, National Unity party chairman Benny Gantz, Yisrael Beitenu head Avigdor Liberman and Labor party leader Merav Michaeli all announced on Monday their intention to boycott future parliamentary votes on Netanyahu’s reforms.
Yair Lapid
Yair Lapid (Getty Images)
Reiterating their preconditions for negotiations, they said in a joint statement: “As long as there is no halt of the legislation, it’s a deception.”
Ahead of the bill’s first reading, as many as 500,000 protesters took to the streets across Israel for the tenth consecutive weekend in what organisers claimed was the largest demonstration in the country’s history.
About 20 per cent of all Israelis have so far participated in the street demonstrations.
Proponents of the reforms argue that the changes are necessary to restore balance and rein in an unaccountable and overzealous judiciary.
The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) produced a detailed proposal to entrench the “rules of the game” ahead of the 75th anniversary so that elected governments cannot use “temporary political majorities to overhaul Israel’s constitutional foundations”.
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Merav Michaeli
According to the IDI, a “sensible public discussion on fundamental principles is imperative if we are to bequeath to future generations a stable Jewish and democratic state. Strong national solidarity around agreed constitutional principles is essential for confronting the immense challenges facing Israel in the foreseeable future.”
The IDI’s proposals, shared with the JC, consist of three basic principles:
The creation of a bill of rights so that the rights Israelis enjoy such as equality before the law and freedom of religion can be enshrined in constitutional protection based upon the principles of Israel’s Declaration of Independence.
Clear rules for passing and amending constitutional legislation must be established and the role of the courts defined in law so that the judiciary can retain its status as an independent branch of government.
All three branches of government to be reformed to address the balance of power. Proposed changes include the creation of an Appeals Court and the strengthening of the Knesset’s capacity for oversight over the executive branch.
