Far-right government in Israel votes to limit Supreme Court powers

[DKG]

 Israeli lawmakers voted Monday to limit the Supreme Court's ability to strike down government actions, delivering a long-sought goal of the country's ascendant right-wing movement. The measure was pushed through despite months of massive civil unrest, international condemnations and pleas from business and security leaders to seek consensus in a bitterly divided society on the verge of chaos.

Lawmakers methodically voted down 140 amendments, just as they had shouldered through more than a thousand objections in a week of preliminary maneuvering and more than six months of nationwide protests. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — just hours after leaving the hospital where he had an emergency pacemaker implanted — sat calmly through the voting as shouts of derision rained around him, occasionally leaving for consultations. He took several phone calls, including from Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who was working feverishly to broker a last-minute compromise.

But in a dramatic and contentious parliamentary session, with shouts of "Shame!" chanted by demonstrators outside the Knesset and opposition members inside, the prime minister's coalition of right-wing, religiously conservative and ultranationalist parties stood steadfast.

Shortly before 4 p.m. local time, after opposition members had left the chamber in protest, government loyalists voted 64-to-0 to change Israel's Basic Law, stripping the Supreme Court of some of its powers of judicial review — a first victory in a more expansive push to rein in the judiciary, which has long been in a thorn in the side of Israel's right wing.

Netanyahu and some of his allies signaled that the vote was necessary to appease his most extreme coalition partners, and that there were no plans to push through other parts of the judicial overhaul. But other coalition partners said they were just getting started.

Across Israeli society on Monday, the fallout was fast and far reaching.

More than 10,000 military reserve pilots, cyber experts and other service members pledged to skip their training duties if the coalition pushed the legislation through. Netanyahu was scheduled to meet after the vote with the Army's chief of staff amid warnings from top generals that Israel's defensive readiness could be impaired if enough reservists follow through on that threat.

In judicial overhaul protests, Israel's soldiers face off against Netanyahu
The country's largest labor federation, which saw its own compromise proposal rejected on Sunday, has said it may call a general strike. Bankers warned that deposits and investments had already begun to flee the country. The shekel and the Tel Aviv stock exchange plummeted.

High-tech leaders warned that Israel's reputation as an open and innovative start-up incubator was at risk. The Israel Business Forum, a federation of 150 of the country's largest companies, shuttered malls, law firms and gas stations.

[Oliver the Second]

Good thing Biden is senile or he might try the same thing.