Prominent U. S. lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a staunch supporter of Israel’s policies on the foreign stage, said Sunday he could protect sweeping judicial reforms planned by the new Israeli government.
The proposals call for an overhaul to reduce the strength of the judiciary, adding to allowing lawmakers to seamlessly re-legislate legislation that the Supreme Court struck down and seriously restricting judges’ ability to overturn legislation in the first place. The reforms would also give politicians more strength over how judges are selected and restrict the independence of government legal advisers, among other measures.
Legal reforms were key to consolidating the existing coalition government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and made up of ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox conservative parties to advance its timeline through less judicial oversight.
Dershowitz said the reforms pose a risk to civil liberties and minority rights in Israel.
“If I were in Israel, I would sign up for the protests,” Dershowitz told Army Radio, referring to a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday against the reforms that drew thousands of people.
“It will be much harder for other people like me who seek to protect Israel in foreign court from public opinion to protect them effectively,” he said. “It would be a tragedy to see the Supreme Court weakened. “
However, Dershowitz insists that there is a “great confusion” between democracy and civil liberties and that “Israeli democracy is not in danger; In fact, the reforms are designed for democracy, majority rule. “
“What is in danger are civil liberties, minority rights,” he said. There is “a direct clash between natural democracy, where the Knesset rules. . . and minority rights and civil rights that the Supreme Court seeks to protect,” he said. saying.
Dershowitz rejected Israel’s assimilation into authoritarian regimes and predicted that the Jewish state will be a democratic country in which the majority rules, but expressed fear of “the danger that it will conform less to civil liberties and minority rights. “
It was to listen to Dershowitz, who has written bestselling books supporting Israeli policies and is close to Netanyahu, so strongly oppose the proposed reforms. Dershowitz said he had recently informed Netanyahu of his “very negative views” on the reforms, saying he disclosed Israel to demanding legal situations through global bodies such as the International Criminal Court.
The reforms may also help Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, escape conviction or see his trial disappear altogether. Dershowitz said he believed Netanyahu accepted the reforms not to save himself from condemnation but to appease his new ruling coalition partners.
Critics accuse the government of singling out war in the judicial formula, the plan will disappoint Israel’s formula of checks and balances and undermine its democratic establishments by giving absolute strength to the highest right-wing coalition in the country’s history.
The government says the plan strikes the right balance between the executive and judiciary while simplifying governance and legislation.
Dershowitz said the proposed reform “does not achieve the right balance, provides too much strength to the majority” and that it needs Netanyahu “not to let his right wing dictate what the balance should be. “
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