The confrontation between the ruling coalition in the occupied territories and the Supreme Court has entered a new phase following the approval of the bill to change the composition of the "Judicial Selection Committee."
According to Ashura News, citing Mehr News Agency, the judicial reform file became the first and most important project of Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet from the first week of his return to power. The first phase of these reforms lasted from the first week of 2023 until almost the end of this year. During this time, Netanyahu's cabinet considered reforms in three areas, but this phase of reforms almost failed with the final repeal of the basic law of judicial reforms known as the "cancellation of the rule of reasonableness" on January 1, 2024 by the Supreme Court.
After that, until the end of 2024, the judicial reform file remained almost silent, and the management of the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and then Hezbollah in Lebanon inevitably became the main file of the ruling coalition. With a significant decrease in the intensity of the war on the Lebanese and Gaza fronts from mid-2024, however, whispers about the revival of these reforms once again rose.
During the process of reducing the intensity of the clashes on the fronts, the revival of judicial reforms, as well as other attacks on the Attorney General and the Supreme Court by officials in Netanyahu's cabinet, intensified. This should be analyzed on two levels; the first issue is the basis of the existing dispute between the two sides over the degree of governance and the extent of the Supreme Court's power to challenge the ruling coalition's decisions.
But at the same time, we should not ignore the fact that the current coalition is trying to see the judicial reforms case as a way of reconciling with the Supreme Court over the failures of October 7, 2023, and the court's insistence on forming a fact-finding committee in this regard.
Netanyahu wants to force the Supreme Court to bend in this regard by exerting pressure; so that, at the cost of relatively preserving the court's power, it will pass over the establishment of a sovereign fact-finding committee to investigate the negligence and culpability of political, military, and security officials during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The first phase of judicial reforms began with two basic ideas; Initially, there was talk that in order to defeat the Supreme Court’s ruling against the decrees and decrees of dismissal and appointment, the Knesset could re-enact the repealed decrees through a re-vote and achieve an absolute majority, not even an “overwhelming majority.”
Some time after trying to write such a bill, Justice Minister Yariu Levin, the main architect of the judicial reform, admitted in a video that some of the opposition’s concerns were correct.
The second idea was put on the agenda after three months of negotiations with the opposition. In order to avoid strong protests, Netanyahu’s coalition cabinet decided to pursue reforms in several bills instead of one bill, in order to reduce the intensity of its reaction both for society and for the Supreme Court itself.
In this regard, the ruling coalition put “abolition of the rule of reasonableness” on its agenda. The bill would have stripped the Supreme Court of its right to overturn government decrees and decisions for “unreasonableness.” This time, Netanyahu’s coalition passed it as a basic law to prevent the Supreme Court from overturning the bill. The Supreme Court had never overturned a basic law in its lifetime, but as mentioned at the beginning, the Supreme Court overturned this law in January 2024.
The second phase of judicial reform 2024-2025
The failure of the first phase closed the reform process for a few months. However, since mid-2024, there have been whispers of its revival. The chairman of the Knesset Basic Law Committee has once again spoken of the need to implement the reforms.
In this phase, instead of reducing the power of the Supreme Court, Levin tried to change the procedure for selecting the court’s judges, in order to prevent what he called “extreme judicial activism” by introducing more conservative judges to the court.
Under the previous law on the composition of the committee, the judicial branch's options responsible for selecting candidates for membership in the Supreme Court were nine:
1. Three judges from the Supreme Court: consisting of the Chief Justice and two other judges elected by the 15 judges of the Supreme Court. This group reflected the views of the judiciary.
2. Two representatives from the Bar Association: These individuals were elected by the Bar Association members and generally acted as independent members.
3. Two representatives from the Cabinet: usually the Minister of Justice (who chaired the committee) and another minister who appointed their cabinet.
4. Two representatives from the Knesset (parliament): one representative from the ruling coalition and one representative from the opposition, elected by the members of parliament.
This composition was designed so that no single group (judges, lawyers, or politicians) had an absolute majority and that decisions would require some level of agreement or coalition between the various groups.
However, on March 26, 2025, with the passage of a new bill in this regard, the nine members of this committee will be elected as follows:
1. Elimination of independent representatives from the Bar Association: The most significant change is the complete removal of the two representatives elected by the Bar Association from the committee. This action removes the independent voice of the legal community from the process of selecting judges.
2. Replacement with political representatives: In place of the two removed representatives of the Bar Association, two more lawyers will be added to the committee, but the method of their selection will be completely different.
3. One Knesset member will be directly elected by the ruling coalition.
4. The second representative will also be directly elected by the opposition.
This change effectively turns two seats that previously had the potential for independence into positions with direct political affiliation and greatly increases the influence of political parties on the committee.
Change in the balance of power
With these changes, the new composition of the committee will still include nine members, but six of its members (two cabinet members, two Knesset members, and two lawyers selected by the coalition and the opposition) will be directly or indirectly influenced and selected by political factions. In contrast, only three members (Supreme Court justices) remain representing the judiciary. This shift fundamentally shifts the balance of power in favor of politicians, giving them a clear majority.
Consequences
52 opposition members boycotted the vote on the bill, and it was passed with 67 votes in favor and 1 against. The main opposition leaders, Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz, and Yair Golan, strongly opposed the law, calling it a resumption of Netanyahu’s war on “democracy.”
It seems likely that the Israeli Supreme Court will also oppose the law again. This process will once again exacerbate the previous division within Israeli society and institutions. It seems likely that this confrontation will continue until the end of Netanyahu’s cabinet and the next general elections. This could once again create the basis for new crises in the occupied territories.
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