Netanyahu: ‘We will pass the Judicial Selection Committee bill, then stop the reform’

The law to amend the composition of the Judge Selection Committee will be the last piece of legislation in the push for judicial reform, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Bloomberg News in an interview released on Sunday.

“Give it several months to try and get another consensus. What is it? It would probably be about the composition of the committee that elects judges… that’s basically what’s left. Because other things, I think, we should not legislate,” Netanyahu explained.

The prime minister told Bloomberg he didn’t want to take the judicial system from one extreme to the other too quickly.

“I don’t think we should move from one extreme, where we have perhaps the most judicial court on the planet, to a point where the legislature can just knock out any decision the court makes. There has to be a balance.”

The controversial override clause, which was included in Justice Minister Yair Levin’s reform proposal, would enable the government to “override” judicial review by the court, or pass laws that are preemptively defined to be immune from review.

When asked how quickly the Judge Selection Committee law could get passed, Netanyahu said, “Well, if we had a compromise, it would come immediately.”

He added that if the opposition does not support it, he would seek public support.

Netanyahu emphasized that his coalition had made major efforts to reach an agreement with the opposition, saying, “I stopped the judicial legislation for three months, seeking consensus from the other side – unfortunately not getting it. Then [I] brought in a relatively minor part of the reform, passed it,” he said.

The minor part Netanyahu referred to is the Reasonableness Standard Law, which was passed into law by a Knesset vote at the end of July. The law is intended to prevent the High Court from striking down decisions by the government or ministers on the grounds of their “reasonableness.”

Netanyahu said he had called on his ministers to tone down their rhetoric and joked that he had tried to do so a hundred times.

“Are they listening?” the interviewer asked.

“I succeeded 50 times. You don’t always succeed.”

Several ministers have implied or outright declared that the government would not respect a possible High Court decision to strike down the Incapacitation Law, which amends the criteria for the removal of a prime minister because he is unfit to serve in office.

On Sunday, the High Court issued a temporary injunction against the amendment to the Incapacitation Law that was passed by the Knesset in March.

Netanyahu was asked if he would abide by a High Court ruling to strike down the law in a recent NBC news interview but refused to give a straight answer.

“I think we have to follow two rules. One is: Israeli governments abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court, and at the same time the Supreme Court respects the Basic Laws, which are the closest thing we have to a constitution, I think we should keep both principles,” he responded.