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In major step, Israeli judicial reform bill passes first parliamentary vote
(JTA) — The Israeli government’s controversial judicial reform plan cleared a major hurdle as its parliament, the Knesset, voted to advance a key piece of the plan.
The 63-47 vote took place early Tuesday morning, following a second week of mass protests outside the Knesset in Jerusalem. The bill was introduced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, which took office in December. It would give the Israeli governing coalition full control over the appointment of judges and would bar the Supreme Court from striking down basic laws, which are Israel’s closest parallel to a constitution.
The bill now returns to discussion in parliamentary committees ahead of two more votes in the Knesset, which generally occur close together and would pass the bill into law. In addition to pushing the bill forward, Tuesday’s vote was a signal that it has majority support in parliament. Members of the government have called for further limits on the court, including a measure that would significantly curtail the court’s ability to strike down laws.
The vote happened in the face of a series of mass protests against the reform in Israel, and despite the warnings of a chorus of world leaders, legal scholars and public intellectuals that it would harm Israel’s standing as a democracy. Israeli President Isaac Herzog called for compromise over the reform plan last week and said in a pained speech that he feared the battle over the legislation would lead to “constitutional and social collapse.” It is unclear whether dialogue over the bill will take place given Tuesday’s vote.
Recently, sounds of alarm have come from Tom Nides, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, who said on Saturday that the Israeli government should “pump the brakes” on the court reform. President Joe Biden has also criticized the plan. In addition, a group of 15 major North American Jewish philanthropists signed an open letter on Monday saying they were “deeply troubled by this attempt to curtail the independence of the judiciary.”
The bill gives members of the coalition a majority on the nine-seat panel that appoints judges to the Supreme Court. Unlike the U.S. government, in which separate elections for Senate and president allow for a potential check on the president’s power to appoint judges, the Israeli governing coalition is comprised of a majority of its legislature and would alone wield discretion over appointments.
Yair Lapid, the leader of the parliamentary opposition, tweeted, “Members of the coalition: History will judge you for tonight. For the damage to democracy, for the damage to the economy, for the damage to security, for the fact that you’re tearing the people of Israel to pieces and you just don’t care.”
In a speech on the Knesset floor, Netanyahu accused the opposition of going “off the rails” and criticized the protests. He defended the bill as the work of a democratically elected government.
“In a democracy, the people votes in elections, and representatives of the people vote here in the Knesset,” Netanyahu said. “That’s called democracy. The leaders of the protests, unfortunately, are trampling democracy. They don’t accept the outcome of the election. They don’t accept the decision of the majority.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionism party and an ally of Netanyahu, tweeted a shorter message: “What you elect is what you get!”
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The post In major step, Israeli judicial reform bill passes first parliamentary vote appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
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Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.