Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer met several times over the past month with former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak for discussions regarding the judicial reform, Channel 13 News reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, Minister Dermer, who is considered close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, conducted the talks as a member of the coalition’s negotiating team in the talks on a compromise on the judicial reform, which are being held at the President's Residence. It is not clear if Justice Minister Yariv Levin was aware of the talks.
The report noted that Dermer and Barak have known each other for many years, dating back to when Barak gave lectures and courses at various universities in the United States.
Netanyahu does not intend to allow the judicial reform to be promoted at this stage and is waiting for the possibility of reaching agreements in the talks at the President's Residence.
The opposition, for its part, is not optimistic about the talks, but the National Unity Party is willing to give them a chance and allow them to continue for a few more weeks.
Barak has been one of the vocal opponents of the government’s proposed judicial reform.
Barak, who served as Supreme Court President between 1995 and 2006, first coined the term “Constitutional Revolution”.
Barak's approach, which was adopted by the Supreme Court and widely criticized over the years, says that the Constitutional Revolution brought values such as the Right to Equality, Freedom of Employment and Freedom of Speech to a position of normative supremacy, and thereby granted the courts (not just the Supreme Court) the ability to strike down legislation which is inconsistent with the rights embodied in the Basic Laws.
Consequently, Barak held that the State of Israel has been transformed from a parliamentary democracy to a constitutional parliamentary democracy, in that its Basic Laws were to be interpreted as its constitution.