Netanyahu cancels key part of Israel's controversial judicial overhaul

Prime Minister says Supreme Court 'override clause' now off the table

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has faced mass protests since its inception over controversial plans for legal reform. Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his government’s deeply controversial judicial overhaul will no longer include a provision to remove Supreme Court oversight of legislation.

The provision would have allowed parliament to pass laws that are immune from judicial review, a measure that critics say would render Israel's legal system pointless.

The removal of the “override clause” will rankle many in Mr Netanyahu’s coalition, the most right-wing in Israel’s history.

The clause is particularly important to ultra-Orthodox parties in the coalition, who view it as a way of ensuring that men in the community continue to be exempt from military service, a policy many Israelis object to.

“It’s out”, Mr Netanyahu told the Wall Street Journal in a wide-ranging interview published on Thursday, saying that the “public pulse” meant the provision would never be accepted by the opposition or the vast protest movement that has sprung up to oppose the judicial reform plan.

However, Mr Netanyahu criticised the opposition’s approach to negotiations over the reforms, stewarded by President Isaac Herzog, that began after he suspended moves to pass the reform in March.

Israeli military reservists protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to overhaul the judicial system. AP

“The opposition is under such political pressure that they couldn’t agree to the most minimal [proposals],” Mr Netanyahu said.

“They couldn’t agree to things we brought up by the opposition leaders before they went into opposition,” he added.

Mr Netanyahu also promised to revise another controversial piece of the legislation, which would have given the government more say in the appointment of judges.

The judicial reforms have also raised concern among Israel’s western allies, most notably the US.

Mr Netanyahu downplayed not having received an invitation to the White House six months after his government took office.

“This issue of the invitation clouds people’s views and actually their knowledge of what is happening with our two governments, and in fact, the security co-operation, the military co-operation and the intel co-operation, including cyber, is stronger than it’s ever been under our two governments,” he said.

US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, who has previously expressed concern over the reforms, said on Tuesday that he did not believe Mr Netanyahu’s government would unilaterally power through the entire overhaul package in its original state.

“My hope is that they will not do everything unilaterally, because I think the reaction here would be quite dramatic,” Mr Nides said.

Mr Netanyahu also spoke about ongoing concerns over Iran, and his growing fears that the country is profiting from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

He described the increased co-operation between Moscow and Tehran as “very disturbing” and said it “gives Iran the weapons and the means to advance its goals against Israel [and] Arab states”.

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system in action. AP

“We’ve made our concerns known to the Russians,” he added.

He also defended his government against recent criticism from Ukraine that Israel is not doing enough to support it.

Ukraine has consistently asked for sophisticated Israeli military systems, in particular the Iron Dome air defence system, which Kyiv says would save a huge number of civilian lives from Russian missile attacks.

Mr Netanyahu said doing so could leave his country “in a situation where Israeli systems could be used against Israel” if the weapons were captured and reverse engineered.

“If [Iron Dome] were to fall into the hands of Iran, then millions of Israelis would be left defenceless and imperilled.”