Opponents of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have warned that his government is one step closer to undermining elections by announcing it would ignore a ruling by the country’s highest court.
Opposition politicians, senior legal officials and Israeli President Isaac Herzog have criticised the government’s decision not to take into account a Supreme Court ruling that curtails its efforts to control a media regulatory body.
Israeli law requires the regulator to have a minimum number of members to make decisions. The government argues that because the council no longer meets that requirement, it has no authority to approve appointments or take other actions. However, on June 17, the court ordered the council to continue anyway.
The Israeli cabinet on Sunday voted unanimously in favour of rejecting the court's ruling, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and Justice Minister Yariv Levin said in a statement.
The cabinet said the court had no authority to trample on the law and it would "act through all legal means at its disposal to nullify the decision".
"A ruling that contradicts the law will not be recognised and decisions made under it are null and void," it said.
No Israeli government has ever stated that it would disregard a decision by the Supreme Court. Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition launched a judicial reform package after taking office in December 2022 and has frequently clashed with the judiciary.
Critics of the proposed overhaul called it illegal and said the massive divisions it caused within Israel emboldened the country’s enemies and weakened national unity in the run-up to the October 7 attacks and the subsequent Gaza war.
Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said the government's decision to defy the high court ruling was “a historic step to return the Jewish and democratic State of the Jews to its owners – the people”.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said the decision “undermines the fundamental principles of the rule of law”.
Mr Herzog, in a rare intervention, said the government going against the court’s ruling would be “a red line” that would “strike at the heart of the nation’s unity".
Yair Golan, leader of The Democrats, a left-wing opposition party, said Mr Netanyahu's government "knows it has no chance of winning an election, and therefore it is waging war on the rule of law".
“This is a government that wants to practise and normalise non-compliance with the court, so that it can refuse tomorrow to accept the election results and vacate power after it is defeated at the polls,” he said.
Fears about what the announcement might mean for Israel’s next general election, which must be held by October, were echoed in the country’s media. In an editorial published on Monday, Haaretz said that Mr Netanyahu's cabinet had “announced that the rule of law in Israel has ended”.
“From now on, it will decide what is and isn't legal. There's no need for the attorney general or the court, only Netanyahu,” it added.
“There's also an immediate political interest at play. With an election slated for this fall, and the coalition flailing in the polls, Netanyahu and his allies deem it crucial to divide in order to rule.”
A group of former Israeli ambassadors warned in a letter that “Israel's continued distancing from the family of democratic states will affect the economy and each of its citizens”.
“The decision also empties of all meaning, Israel's claims before international law bodies that its judicial system is independent,” they said.
Mr Netanyahu has for years been battling his own legal cases over alleged corruption and wrongdoing. He frames the cases as a witch-hunt by legal elites that distracts him from running Israel effectively during a time of major security problems.
