World News | Israel Judicial Reform Negotiations Freeze Until Crucial Vote on Judicial Selection Panel

Jerusalem [Israel]June 10 (ANI/TPS): The Israeli opposition has stalled judicial reform talks until the Knesset votes on June 15 to elect two lawmakers to serve on a judicial selection committee.

Opposition officials said they froze talks to ensure that one of the two seats reserved for Knesset members would be on their side.

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Traditionally, the nine-member judicial select committee that selects Israeli judges includes a coalition lawmaker and an opposition lawmaker. However, the opposition expressed concern over reports that Justice Minister Yariv Levin wanted to break with tradition and appoint two coalition members to secure a majority for the government.

According to Hebrew media reports, if the opposition does not secure a seat on the committee, the temporarily suspended talks will become permanent.

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Yesh Atid, the largest opposition party with 24 MKs in the 120-seat parliament, submitted its candidates for next week’s vote on Wednesday, choosing MK Karine Elharrar. She is the only candidate for an opposition seat.

“In these days when democracy is under attack, the opposition stands together to defend the justice system,” said Yair Lapid, head of Yesh Atid.

“As a representative of the opposition, I am committed to serving as a loyal ambassador for the strengthening of democratic values ​​and the judicial system,” Elharrar said.

National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz announced his party would not submit a candidate for the post. Labor chairman Merav Michaeli followed Gantz’s move by announcing MK Efrat Rayten’s withdrawal as a candidate.

As well as the two members of parliament, the committee includes the justice minister as chairman, another cabinet minister, two members of the bar association, the president of the Supreme Court and two other judges.

On Wednesday, Levine, the lead architect of the league’s judicial reform plan, criticized the judge selection process, saying the committee’s current composition was “inappropriate.”

“Many of the problems and injustices we deal with arise from the fact that our judicial system is what it appears to be, and that the process of selecting judges is conducted in an inappropriate and unacceptable way — a composition that cannot Accepted committee, that’s inappropriate and inappropriate in a democracy,” Levine said from the parliamentary podium.

Judicial reforms by the ruling coalition are controversial. The legislation advancing through parliament will primarily change the way judges are appointed and removed, give parliament the ability to overturn certain high court decisions, limit judges’ ability to apply “reasonableness” standards and change the way legal advisers are appointed to government ministries.

Supporters of the law reform say they want to end years of judicial overreach, while opponents have described the proposals as anti-democratic. (ANI/TPS)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the body of content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)