Unilateral judicial reform will fail, warns ex-Israel army chief

Unilateral judicial reform in Israel will end in failure, former army Chief of Staff, Benny Gantz, said yesterday, warning of an escalation of protests and anger on the streets, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported.

“If Netanyahu decides to take us three months backwards, everyone will lose, right and left, Arabs and Jews, secular and extremists,” Gantz said in reference to a recent announcement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on going ahead with his government’s controversial judicial reforms.

Calling on Netanyahu to refrain from taking such a step, Gantz said that Israel was “on the verge of an abyss.”

Addressing the prime minister, he added: “You know that this step does not have [the support of] the majority of the people.”

Israel has been in political turmoil in recent months over the planned judicial reform by the Netanyahu government.

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Advocates of the suspended overhaul, which grants almost complete control of bench appointments to the right-wing coalition government, say the Supreme Court is elitist, left-leaning and overreaching, and that elected officials should have more power in picking judges.

Opponents say this would politicise and weaken a strong Supreme Court that plays a major role in Israel’s democratic checks and balances; maintaining a separation between the judiciary and state. They also point out that the planned changes come as Netanyahu faces several counts of corruption.