[Salon] Not Just Judicial Overhaul: Six Other Radical Laws on the Israeli Government’s Wish List

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-30/ty-article/.premium/not-just-judicial-overhaul-six-other-radical-laws-on-the-israeli-governments-wish-list/00000187-31b5-da89-a39f-3db559d10000

Not Just Judicial Overhaul: Six Other Radical Laws on the Israeli Government’s Wish List

From introducing the death penalty for terrorists to increasing the jurisdiction of rabbinical courts, here are six pieces of planned legislation that have been overshadowed by the government’s efforts to weaken the Supreme Court

Judicial coup bills

Sam SokolMar 30, 2023

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit pause Monday on his government’s hugely controversial efforts to overhaul the judicial system, members of his coalition have been quietly moving ahead with a raft of other, no less radical, legislative plans.

These include bills allowing public servants to accept gifts and the police to search private homes without a warrant; legalizing the death penalty for terrorists; banning bread from hospitals over the Passover holiday; and significantly expanding the jurisdiction of Israeli rabbinical courts.

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On Tuesday, the Knesset approved a temporary law allowing the police to conduct searches for illegal weapons without a court order, as part of an effort to curb the presence of illegal weapons in the country’s Arab communities.

The new bill permits officers to enter and search any house or place in which there is reasonable suspicion of finding a weapon. It also allows warrantless searches of premises in cases where there is reasonable suspicion that it holds evidence of a serious crime being committed. Netanyahu failed to express any opposition to the bill, despite harshly criticizing similar legislation promoted by then-Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar in 2021.

Dr. Guy Lurie, an attorney and research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, said such legislation is part of “an increasing wave of antidemocratic bills” that may not have been taken seriously in the past, but which now have a good chance of being passed into law.

“I think the radical and extreme nature of the proposals in regards to the independence of the judiciary are such that they create a lot of resistance from the public and some of the other proposals sometimes in contrast seem not so bad,” so they do not receive the same amount of pushback, he said.

A security guard at the entrance to Netanya's hospital, with a sign warning that leavened bread is not permitted during Passover.Credit: Moti Milrod

For Lurie, the new bills “are part of changing the public sphere and the protection of rights, and what’s daunting about them is that I think they will pass forward after the first stage of the judicial overhaul is completed.”

He warned that the judicial overhaul could next lead to efforts to restrict voting rights and freedom of speech.

If what has been widely described as a judicial coup passes, many rights would no longer enjoy the protection of the Supreme Court, Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) admitted recently.

Earlier this month, Likud lawmaker Eliyahu Revivo, who had proposed barring candidates who supported a boycott of Israel from running for parliament, withdrew a bill allowing the Knesset speaker to choose the chairman of the Central Elections Committee. This followed pressure from coalition chairman Ofir Katz, who is currently promoting his own legislation to expand the criteria for disqualifying candidates or parties who “support terrorism.”

The current coalition has been keen to push measures to clamp down on rising violence, even as critics have accused it of fanning the flames. Over Likud’s objections, a key Knesset committee last month approved legislation legalizing the death penalty for those charged with terrorism. The proposed law, which has the backing of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, would allow Israel’s courts to impose the death penalty on those convicted of terrorism against Israeli citizens.

However, not everything has gone the coalition’s way. As well as Netanyahu having to freeze his judicial overhaul until the summer after a wave of unprecedented protests and a general strike, Likud announced on Wednesday that it would not be seeking to further advance a bill that would allow elected officials to receive private donations for legal expenses.

The amendment to the public service law would have allowed public servants and their spouses to accept funds to finance legal proceedings or necessary medical treatments gifted through active fundraising – a measure Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara asserted was likely to “allow governmental corruption to flourish.”

Despite being paused, the so-called gift law “is a harbinger of even worse proposals in the future if the judicial overhaul passes,” Israel Democracy Institute’s Lurie predicted.

But while the government has sought to diminish the power of the Supreme Court, its members are actively involved in efforts to enhance the power of the country’s religious tribunals.

In a preliminary vote last month, lawmakers voted 58-43 to advance legislation to grant the country’s rabbinical court system a status equal to that of the secular justice system. This would create a separate and parallel legal system operating according to Jewish religious law.

Israeli rabbinical courts have the authority to adjudicate in matters pertaining to marriage and divorce of Jews, but in the past also acted as arbitrators in financial disputes. In 2006, the Supreme Court issued a decision that rabbinical courts did not have the authority to act as arbiters in financial and other matters, and that if the state wished to have rabbinical courts act in such disputes, this authority would have to be granted them in legislation.

If passed into law, such a change could harm the rights of women, who have long complained of unequal treatment before male-only religious courts, said Rabbi Seth Farber. His ITIM organization works to help Israelis navigate the country’s religious bureaucracy.

“The rabbinical courts are not exactly known for their efficiency or their efficacy in terms of getting things done,” said Farber, who noted that they “should get their act together” before seeking additional authority.

Aside from strengthening the rabbinical courts, Israel’s religious parties have also been involved in other efforts to roll back changes to the religious status quo. This included Tuesday’s passage of the so-called chametz law, banning all leavened bread products that are not kosher for Passover from Israeli hospitals.

According to Farber, this law was partially motivated by a desire to “slap the wrist of the Supreme Court,” which had previously ruled that hospitals did not have the authority to ban baked goods. Many Haredim see the top court as a barrier to the passage of a bill exempting them from military service – this is widely seen as a key factor behind their support of the judicial overhaul.

Ariel Finkelstein, a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute focusing on issues of religion and state, said that “the perception in the public is that the goal of the law is to promote religious coercion against the secular public. However, much of the ultra-Orthodox political agenda is focused on maintaining communal independence. “For them, the introduction of chametz into ‘Orthodox’ hospitals is a violation of autonomy, and therefore it was important to them,” he added.