(17 Jul 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jerusalem - 17 July 2023
1. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at weekly cabinet meeting
2. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister: “The claim that Israel’s entire democracy will collapse because of the amendment of the reasonability standard is a statement that is disconnected from reality and is meant in its entirety to scare the public for nothing.”
3.Wide of Netanyahu at cabinet meeting
4. Close of Netanyahu at meeting
STORYLINE:
Israel’s governing coalition is pushing ahead with a contentious plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary.
That's despite a growing chorus of opposition and a wave of mass protests expected this week.
A parliamentary committee was to meet Monday to prepare a bill that would limit judicial oversight on some government decisions.
It is expected to come to a final vote in parliament that would make it law early next week. Nationwide protests are expected on Tuesday.
The government says the plan is meant to rein in what it sees as an overly interventionist judicial system and restore power to elected officials.
Speaking at a meeting of his Cabinet on Monday, a day after being discharged from hospital for a dizzy spell, Netanyahu defended the overhaul and the bill moving forward now, which would prevent Israel’s courts from scrutinizing the “reasonableness” of decisions made by elected officials.
“The claim that Israel’s entire democracy will collapse because of the amendment of the reasonability standard is a statement that is disconnected from reality and is meant in its entirety to scare the public for nothing,” he said.
Critics say the plan would upend Israel’s delicate system of checks and balances and push the country toward autocracy, adding that removing the standard would allow the government to make questionable appointments without oversight.
They also say that it could clear the way for Netanyahu to fire the current attorney general - seen by supporters as a bulwark against the overhaul plan - or appoint legal officials who could ease his way out of the corruption charges he is facing in an ongoing trial.
AP video shot by Moshe Edri
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