On the one hand we are hearing that the Netanyahu government’s proposed Judicial reforms are a threat to Israeli democracy.
On February 21, 2023, the Jewish Federations came out against Netanyahu’s Judicial Reform. They sent an open letter urging the plan be dropped from the platform. Then 169 “US liberal Jewish leaders” also sent a similar letter. JLN recently reported that it appears for the first time, American Jews are boycotting Israeli Officials. The Union of Reform Judaism has also come out against the proposed judicial reform. Critics say that the reform will weaken Israeli democracy.
On the other hand, the Eretz HaKodesh and Coalition for Jewish Values criticized the American letters’ as amounting to foreign interference. Both Orthodox organizations wrote letters supporting Netanyahu and slamming The Jewish Agency.
“It must be noted that these comments that have been made to you do not represent the voices of all Diaspora Jewry,” said the signed letter by Eretz HaKodesh, signed by Chairman Rabbi Pesach Lerner and delegate Stephen L. Rosedale.
Michael Mukasey, former U.S. Attorney General, wrote in the Wall Street Journal that Netanyahu’s judicial reform “doesn’t go far enough.” 120 Israeli academics from an organization called Professors for a Strong Israel wrote a letter in favor of of the reform. The professors explained that reforms were needed owing to the “constitutional revolution led by [former Supreme Court president] Prof. Aharon Barak,” which they said had “violated the balance between the branches of government in Israel.”
“The violation of the balance between branches of government and the increase in power of the [High] Court were done through various instruments, including judicial review over primary legislation, including its expansion to Basic Laws, broadening the right to standing, broadening the doctrine of justiciability, broadening the use of reasonableness, the use of objective interpretation [of the law], and greatly increasing the authority of government legal advisers,” argued the professors in a public letter published on Thursday.
