2023 Israeli judicial reform protests
Protests against the judicial reform initiated by the thirty-seventh government of Israel / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From January to October 2023, large-scale protests took place across Israel in response to the government's push for a wide-ranging judicial reform. The proposed reformed aimed to among other, change the makeup of the Judicial Selection Committee so that control over the appointment of judges was effectively given to the government. Secondly, the reform would prevent the Supreme Court of Israel from ruling on the validity of a Basic Law. Thirdly, the reform would prohibit the Supreme Court to use "unreasonableness" as grounds for review of administrative decisions. Also, minister would be permitted to appoint their own legal advisers rather than legal adviser operating under the direction of the Attorney-General. Lastly, the reform proposed would change the system for selecting judges, so that the governing coalition would gain the power to appoint judges among other plans.[9] In July 2023, the Knesset passed the law to abolish the Supreme Court's ability to review government actions on grounds of reasonableness has been passed in, which so far is the only piece legislation of the judicial reform plan to have been passed in parliament.[lower-alpha 1].[10]
2023 Israeli judicial reform protests | |||
---|---|---|---|
Part of the reactions to the 2023 Israeli judicial reform | |||
Date | 7 January – 12 October 2023 (9 months and 5 days) | ||
Location | Israel, with solidarity protests in the United States 32.0725°N 34.7800°E / 32.0725; 34.7800 | ||
Caused by | 2023 Israeli judicial reform | ||
Status | Ended
| ||
Parties | |||
| |||
Lead figures | |||
Casualties | |||
Injuries | 128 protesters (3 seriously injured),[6] 39 police officers (per police sources)[7][8] | ||
Arrested | 719+ | ||
Charged | 11 |
The reform was promoted by Justice Minister Yariv Levin with the backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of the other parties in the governing coalition,[11][12] but was opposed by opposition parties as well as a large segment of the Israeli public. The protests took place in cities across the country from 7 January until 7 October, when the Israel–Hamas war began; sporadic demonstrations continued until 12 October, when the formation of a war cabinet paused all judicial reform efforts.[13][14][15][16] They were faced with questions on how much, if at all, they should focus on Palestinian rights.[17] Recent statements by Israeli figures increasingly linked the aim of the reform to the expansion of Israeli settlements and further annexation of Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.[18]