The coalition parties announced that they are considering splitting Justice Minister Yariv Levin's proposed judicial reforms and voting on one aspect of the reforms, changing the makeup of the committee which selects Supreme Court justices and preventing the Supreme Court from striking down Basic Laws, Kan Reshet Bet reported.
The Chairman of the Knesset's Constitution Committee, MK Simcha Rothman, is expected to announce soon that he is splitting those two issues off from the rest of the reforms so that the Knesset can vote on and pass them separately.
The discussions held by the committee on the judicial reforms for the last two weeks have focused on those two issues. Initially, the coalition intended to slowly discuss the different sections of the entire reform and then also to promote the original bill as a whole. However, the plan has now changed to promote parts of the bill and vote on those parts rather than the entire bill at once, so that a vote can be held soon. The coalition hopes to be able to hold a vote on these parts of the reforms in the next two weeks.
Senior officials in the coalition have expressed support for President Isaac Herzog's offer to mediate negotiations between the different sides on the judicial reforms at the President's Residents, and have stated that the current bill proposed by Minister Levin could see substantial changes as part of a compromise, but said that efforts to pass the legislation would not be stopped to allow for the negotiations to take place.
Supreme Court President Esther Hayut expressed her consent to such a dialogue, but not at the same time that a legislative process threatens her. At the same time, elements in the opposition are sharply criticizing the conduct of the chairman of the Constitution Committee, claiming that he is sabotaging the discussions in the committee and thereby harming the possibility of political dialogue.