Steven Scheer reports
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to opposition to his judicial reform plans on Sunday. He expressed his impatience with the disturbance caused by the resurgence of the demonstrations in Beijing, and summoned the Attorney General to form a cabinet to discuss the police’s countermeasures.
On Monday, Netanyahu’s religious nationalist coalition will read for the first time in parliament a bill that would limit “reasonableness” as a standard for judicial review, which critics say will Power that opens the door to abuse.
The opposition sees the bill as a step to limit the independence of the judiciary, which will eventually bring the Supreme Court to the knees of politicians. Netanyahu is on trial on corruption charges, which he denies. He said the aim of the move was to restore balance among government departments and curb court overreach.
The legislation comes after compromise talks between the government and the opposition stalled last month. Street protests that had subsided broke out again, with protesters planning to gather at Israel’s main airport on Monday.
One of Israel’s largest shopping mall chains has upped the ante, threatening to lose the deal if the Knesset votes.
In a televised address ahead of a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said it was “unthinkable” that the government would take away the right to demonstrate or support any violence against protesters.
But he believes that this freedom should not extend to “violations that impair the fundamental rights of millions of citizens and occur almost every day”, citing, for example, the chaos at Ben Gurion Airport , the closure of major roads and the questioning of elected officials by protesters.
Netanyahu says Attorney General Gary Baharraf-Miara, who has been publicly criticized by several cabinet ministers, will be asked to “account for” at Sunday’s meeting .
Megamalls announced plans to close all 24 shopping centers on Tuesday, saying the bill was “reasonable” and would, if it passed the first reading in Parliament, is “seriously” embarked on a path of patently illegal government corruption and a path of dictatorship”.
“Such legislation would be a fatal blow to Israel’s business and economic certainty , and will directly and immediately endanger our interests. “Presence as a leading company in Israel,” it added in an open letter. It was down 3.1 percent in the first quarter. Cabinet Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he would boycott Big unless the company backed away from what he saw as corporate political “bullying”.
This anger has fueled concerns about the health of Israel’s democracy and weakened the economy.
TheMarker financial news site estimated the economic loss on Sunday at about 150 billion shekels (24 billions of dollars) ), citing the weakness in stocks and the shekel, as well as the rise in inflation as a result of the more than 5 percent fall in the shekel against the dollar, which in turn exacerbated inflation and the overall cost of living.
On Wednesday, Tel Aviv’s outgoing police commander Ami Eshid said he encountered political interference from members of Netanyahu’s cabinet , he said the cabinet members wanted to use excessive force against anti-government protesters.
(1 USD=3.
