Editor’s note: This article was originally published on 18 July and has been updated in light of recent events. On 24 July Israel’s parliament passed the first in a series of laws aimed at restricting the Supreme Court. Following months of protests against the judicial overhaul, today (12 September) all 15 Supreme Court judges are meeting to hear petitions against the legal amendment that restricts their powers. This is a historic showdown that looks set to inflame the ongoing crisis.
On Tuesday 11 July thousands of Israelis filled the streets in protest at the governing coalition’s efforts to dismantle the country’s judiciary. In the northern port city of Haifa, hundreds of protesters blocked the main highway along the coast. About 10,000 protesters stormed Terminal 3 at Ben Gurion airport, while in Tel Aviv, police used water cannon to disperse protesters. Later that day several thousand more protesters gathered around the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, where the previous midnight lawmakers had approved, in the first of three votes required for passage, a bill that would repeal the Supreme Court’s “reasonableness standard”, criteria the Court uses to block administrative decisions by the government and its ministers that fail to adequately consider the public interest.
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