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Israeli government revives judicial overhaul push by advancing a bill to limit Supreme Court’s power
TEL AVIV (JTA) — In the face of mass protests, the Israeli government has resumed its effort to weaken the country’s judiciary, advancing a bill that would strip the Supreme Court of its ability to strike down government decisions it deems “unreasonable.”
Early on Tuesday Israel time, following a long and heated debate, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, voted 64-56 to move the bill forward. Following the vote, the bill must move out of committee and pass two more votes in the full Knesset before becoming law.
Tuesday’s vote ends a period of more than three months during which the government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, paused the overhaul effort to conduct negotiations with the parliamentary opposition. That pause began after a series of mass protests and civil disobedience by the overhaul’s opponents, as well as warnings from a range of world leaders and other dignitaries who say it will endanger Israeli democracy by sapping the Supreme Court of much of its power and independence. The court reform’s proponents, meanwhile, say it will curb an overly activist judiciary and enable the right-wing coalition to govern.
In recent weeks, Netanyahu has said that the negotiations failed and has pledged to push forward a scaled-back version of the overhaul package. That has prompted renewed opposition from the legislation’s opponents both at home and abroad. On Sunday, President Joe Biden said on CNN that he hopes Netanyahu will “continue to move toward moderation in changing the court.”
In Israel, large crowds of protesters took to the streets in recent days, a continuation of protests that have occurred weekly since the proposed judicial overhaul was unveiled at the beginning of the year. Last week, a crowd of protesters gathered in the main terminal of Ben Gurion International Airport, and on Saturday night, more than 100,000 people massed in Tel Aviv in opposition to the overhaul. Ahead of the vote on Monday night, protesters gathered outside the Knesset, and a few were forcibly ejected from the building by security.
Protest organizers say Tuesday’s demonstrations will be far bigger. Dubbed a “Day of Opposition,” it will see protesters return to the airport and block roads, as organizers have called on businesses to strike in solidarity. A major mall chain said it would close in support of the protests but later backtracked and said stores could open if they wished. A number of universities have said students will not be penalized for missing class to protest on Tuesday.
The law that was advanced in an initial vote on Tuesday would remove the Supreme Court’s ability to strike down decisions by nationally elected officials because they are “unreasonable.” That power was last used to invalidate the cabinet appointment of Aryeh Deri, a leading haredi Orthodox politician and key Netanyahu ally, because he had been repeatedly convicted of crimes.
Before Netanyahu paused the overhaul effort in March, his government advanced several other pieces of the overhaul in initial votes, including measures that would have given the governing coalition full control of Supreme Court appointments; removed its power to strike down quasi-constitutional laws; and enabled the Knesset to preemptively shield laws from judicial review. None of those measures have yet to advance further.
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The post Israeli government revives judicial overhaul push by advancing a bill to limit Supreme Court’s power appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News – Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the government would establish an administration to encourage the voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
“We are establishing a migration administration, we are preparing for this under the leadership of the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and Defense Minister [Israel Katz],” he said at a Land of Israel Caucus at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “The budget will not be an obstacle.”
Referring to the plan championed by US President Donald Trump, Smotrich noted the “profound and deep hatred towards Israel” in Gaza, adding that “sources in the American government” agreed “that it’s impossible for two million people with hatred towards Israel to remain at a stone’s throw from the border.”
The administration would be under the Defense Ministry, with the goal of facilitating Trump’s plan to build a “Riviera of the Middle East” and the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Gazans for rebuilding efforts.
“If we remove 5,000 a day, it will take a year,” Smotrich said. “The logistics are complex because you need to know who is going to which country. It’s a potential for historical change.”
The post Smotrich Says Defense Ministry to Spur Voluntary Emigration from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30
A general view shows the plenum at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – The Knesset’s (Israeli parliament’s) Special Committee for Foreign Workers held a discussion on Sunday to examine the needs of wounded and disabled IDF soldiers and the response foreign caregivers could provide.
During the discussion, data from the Defense Minister revealed that the number of registered IDF wounded and disabled veterans rose from 62,000 to 78,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023. “Most of them are reservists and 51 percent of the wounded are up to 30 years old,” the ministry’s report said. The number will increase, the ministry assesses, as post-trauma cases emerge.
The committee chairwoman, Knesset member Etty Atiya (Likud), emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy for the wounded and to remove obstacles. “There is no dispute that the IDF disabled have sacrificed their bodies and souls for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel,” she said. Addressing the veterans, she continued: “And we, as public representatives and public servants alike, must do everything, but everything, to improve your lives in any way possible, to alleviate your pain and the distress of your family members who are no less affected than you.”
Currently, extensions are being given to the IDF veterans on a three-month basis, which Atiya said creates uncertainty and fear among the patients.
“The committee calls on the Interior Minister [Moshe Arbel] to approve as soon as possible the temporary order on our table, so that it will reach the approval of the Knesset,” she said, adding that she “intends to personally approach the Director General of the Population Authority [Shlomo Mor-Yosef] on the matter in order to promote a quick and stable solution.”
The post Defense Ministry: 16,000 Wounded in War, About Half Under 30 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Sky News Arabia in Damascus, Syria in this handout picture released by the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2023. Syrian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Over 1,300 people were killed in two days of fighting in Syria between security forces under the new Syrian Islamist leaders and fighters from ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect on the other hand, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday.
Since Thursday, 1,311 people had been killed, according to the Observatory, including 830 civilians, mainly Alawites, 231 Syrian government security personnel, and 250 Assad loyalists.
The intense fighting broke out late last week as the Alawite militias launched an offensive against the new government’s fighters in the coastal region of the country, prompting a massive deployment ordered by new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible and… we will be able to live together in this country,” al-Sharaa said, as quoted in the BBC.
The death toll represents the most severe escalations since Assad was ousted late last year, and is one of the most costly in terms of human lives since the civil war began in 2011.
The counter-offensive launched by al-Sharaa’s forces was marked by reported revenge killings and atrocities in the Latakia region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority in the country.
The post Over 1,300 Killed in Syria as New Regime Accused of Massacring Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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