Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich responded during the weekly Religious Zionism faction meeting Monday to the criticisms of Justice Minister Yariv Levin's proposed judicial reforms.
"In recent days, we have witnessed wild attacks by various personalities against Minister Levin, and it is doubly sad when harsh words and threats of civil war come from the people at the highest levels. From time immemorial, then and today, the national camp has said: No to civil war. I suggest that everyone immediately stop the heated and inciting discourse," Smotrich said.
"The fixing of the legal and democratic system, after the judicial revolution led by a small number of people who very cleverly picked their own replacements and created a focus of unlimited power that omitted the power of the public is not the end of democracy. The goal of the Law and Justice Program, the goal of Minister Levin, and the goal of MK Simcha Rothman is the same - to strengthen Israeli democracy.
"I have said many times, I will not live a single day in a country that lacks a strong and independent legal system. A system that protects individual rights and is less about promoting a radical leftist agenda. The correction is beginning. The court has no sword and no purse - it has the public's trust. A diverse and strong court that gives relief to the weak and protects the rights of the small citizen - that is what we are striving for and where this national government will reach," he said.
He added: "Justice Minister Levin is the right person in the right place to lead the reform of the legal system. Together with the chairman of the Constitution, Law and Law Committee, MK Simcha Rothman, who has been busy in recent years in correcting the flaws of the Israeli legal system. Simcha and Yariv, you give hope to millions of Israelis for whom statehood is their guiding light and who carry the Jewish and democratic state in their souls can be repaired and that it is possible to restore Israeli democracy and trust in the justice system to its important and rightful place. Keeping election promises is not a privilege or a right, but our democratic and moral duty to the public."
"I remind you that your faithful servant and several others were in Shabak detention - like one of the worst of Israel's enemies - because they were suspected of organizing road blocks. The Israeli justice system threw 14-year-old girls into detention at the end of the proceedings, whose only sin was that they wanted to express their democratic right to protest against the terrible injustice of the expulsion from northern Samaria," Smotrich recalled.
He accused former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak of complaining about others doing what he himself had done. "He closed Arutz Sheva, the only voice the national camp had in the State of Israel. . Thank G-d, since then we have progressed despite their opposition and anger. If it were up to them, there would be no Arutz Sheva, no Besheva, no Channel 14, and no Galai Yisrael."
"For a long time, the court has not earned its right to exist., it has instead protected the values and interests of a tiny minority group in Israeli society that wants to make the State of Israel a state for all its citizens. We are freeing the State of Israel from this anti-democratic thing. I say with responsibility, the judicial system will emerge from this more strengthened, more independent," he said.