President Isaac Herzog has presented a plan to reach a compromise to both sides in the controversy surrounding Justice Minister Yariv Levin's proposed judicial reforms, Channel 12 News reported.
According to the report, the legislation will be frozen for 14 days, which will be devoted to negotiations and talks without preconditions with representatives of all parties, in which they will try to reach a compromise. One option is dialogue through an agreed team and another option is the establishment of a joint committee to reach a compromise.
The idea behind the proposal is that if the efforts go well it will be possible to promote legislation in the spirit of the agreements reached, and if not - the current legislation can advance, since the Knesset's winter conference ends in exactly two months.
None of the parties has any doubt that a compromise will be necessary - on the right this process is seen as a way of ensuring that the final bill is not struck down by the Supreme Court, and on the left it is seen as a way of ensuring that the reforms are not passed in their current form.
The President's Residence responded: "The President of the State has been working for many weeks in an attempt to prevent a historic constitutional crisis and to curb the deepening of the nation's divisions. The President's Residence is currently used as a dialogue center that succeeds in preserving the trust of the parties as a protected shelter for discussions in the midst of the controversy while maintaining the discretion of the participants."
"As part of this, meetings have been held at the President's Residence, including by the President, every day for the past few weeks - meetings with all sides of the political map, including research institutes and various organizations, with the aim of establishing a negotiation mechanism that will allow an exit from the crisis while adhering to the fundamental values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and while maintaining the unity of the people. The call that emerges and resonates from all the meetings and discussions held by the President's Residence is that there must be negotiations. The President of the State is devoting his time and energy to the establishment of a negotiation mechanism that will lead to a resolution."