Israel: government and opposition reject union proposal on ‘reasonableness’ bill

The chairman of Histadrut, Israel’s national federation of trade unions, has proposed a compromise for the bill abolishing the right of the Supreme Court to apply a test of “reasonableness” to government legislation and other decisions, Hebrew-language media reported on Sunday. However, both the coalition and the opposition have rejected the union proposal.

Arnon Bar-David suggested the proposal to soften the government’s “reasonableness” bill and suspend the other laws related to the controversial judicial overhaul for 18 months unless they have been voted for by 75 MKs in the Knesset. The bill is currently undergoing its second and third readings amidst fierce discussions in parliament.

The Likud party rejected the proposal. It said that the Histadrut position represents the opposition point of view. The main protest movement, Kablan Force, also rejected it.

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“The demands of the protests have been changed: suspending legislation, deep changes to the governing system must happen with consensus and a reconciliation that ends up with Israel as dictatorship is bad,” it said. The movement charged that this proposal aimed at returning “criminal Aryeh Deri” to the government. Deri is a convicted fraudster and former minister.

According to opposition leader Yair Lapid, the Histadrut proposal could be used as a foundation for a dialogue. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, though, insists that he is pushing ahead with the legislation.

Meanwhile, former President Reuven Rivlin has joined the protest movement and delivered a speech to the protesters on Sunday. “We have 24 hours to save our wonderful country,” said Likud member Rivlin, as he called on Netanyahu to show leadership.