The Times of Israel livestreamed Tuesday’s events as they unfolded.
Legislation allowing Shas leader Aryeh Deri to be re-elected as cabinet minister will be presented for initial reading at the Knesset plenum on Wednesday and is highly likely to pass.
Last month, the High Court ruled that Deri’s appointment as interior and fitness minister was invalid and ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire him, which the prime minister reluctantly did.
The bill allowing Deri to resume his ministerial duties is an amendment to the existing Basic Law: the government, and inserts a clause in the law stating that no court shall exercise judicial review over the appointment of ministers or dismiss them. office.
In addition to the Deri Act, the bill of a personal member submitted through Simcha Rothman, a member of devout Zionism and chairman of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, to enact the law that will overturn the High Court of Justice, will also be the subject of debate. Initial vote.
Under Rothman’s bill, which would pass as Basic Law: Exemption, the Knesset can simply legislate any law with a “nonetheless clause,” which states that the law would be valid even if it contravenes a Basic Law.
The law would also require the 15 High Court judges to unanimously overturn the law that has not been immune from judicial review.
Rothman is lately preparing a special edition of this law in his committee, but he is also proposing it as a private member’s bill.
Prime Minister Netanyahu visits the home of the Paley family, whose two young men were killed in Friday’s car-ramming attack in Jerusalem.
Father Avraham Noah Paley remains hospitalized in condition at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center.
Netanyahu asked the children’s mother, Hannah Dvora Paley, to put a picture of the children in her office. “This horrible story will help me understand the global difference between us and our enemies,” he says.
Members of the Netanyahu family and his wife to pray for the recovery of Father Avraham Noah.
The head of the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, MK Simcha Rothman, canceled a committee consultation scheduled for tonight and will meet with President Isaac Herzog to discuss the latter’s call for a compromise on judicial reorganization.
Speaking to Channel Twelve, National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz said: “Citizens perceive that what is happening here is regime change. This is not judicial reform. . . It won’t happen next week, it will happen tomorrow.
Gantz: “We allow a politicization of the judicial formula under any circumstances.
He says the government’s existing moves “are the first step. “Once the courts are obstructed, he says, “they will do whatever they want. “
“This is the preface to a dictatorship. . . of the tyranny of the majority. “
He says the fight against reform is important to maintaining Israeli democracy, but it will have to be carried out “within the provisions of the law. “
“I urge Netanyahu to take responsibility. Stop this oncoming train. Then it will be imaginable to move forward” towards consensus.
In his earlier meeting with Bezalel Smotrich, bankers warned Smotrich that there were initial symptoms of an economic crisis, Channel Twelfth reports, and suggested he settle for the president’s call for compromise.
Israel Discount Bank CEO Uri Levin reportedly told Smotrich, “There are negative signs. We are seeing that interest in opening savings accounts in foreign banks has increased tenfold. The dollar is strengthening, the threat from Israel is rising, and our inventory market is working. “worse than others around the world.
“The market is based on accepting as true and if we don’t avoid it now, we can place ourselves in a deep crisis. “
Levin’s considerations would have been backed by major bankers.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid meets with President Isaac Herzog to discuss the latter’s call to discuss justice reform.
Herzog reiterated his call for the two to hold talks.
Lapid said he told the president that there are basic problems on which the opposition will commit to dialogue with the government, “first and foremost, preventing the legislative process in its entirety. “
The Jerusalem municipality plans to fire the wife of the terrorist who carried out Friday’s bombing in the city that killed 3 people, Channel Twelfth reports.
Hussein Qaraqa’s wife works for the municipality as an assistant coach in education. She has been on maternity leave lately.
There is no existing evidence that Qaraqa knew of her husband’s plans in any way. But the municipality believes keeping it would damage public acceptance as truth after the fatal attack, according to the report.
The Palestinian project at the UN is preparing a Security Council solution condemning Israel for its recently announced resolution to legalize nine outposts and advance plans for some 10,000 new settlements in the West Bank, two diplomats from the most sensible countries told The Times of Israel.
Once it has finished drafting the resolution, it will be sent to the Arab League representative on the Security Council, United Arab Emirates, for attention through the membership.
The Palestinian project is being implemented to gather help for the solution to be put to a vote, and lately faces opposition from the United States.
According to the news site Axios, the U. S. The U. S. government told the Palestinians it would be willing to help a non-binding package through Security Council members condemning the Israeli announcement, unlike the binding solution being drafted, which would be more susceptible to help. veto.
Israel is pressuring Security Council members not to accept the resolution, but faces an uphill war as its policies in the West Bank face near-unanimous opposition.
After his love for the protesters, Bezalel Smotrich directs his displeasure to the bank managers. Meeting with bank executives today, the minister rebukes them for considerations about the economic effects of the judicial changes.
“Their task is to calm the narrative,” he says, according to Channel Twelfth. “They have a duty as bank leaders. I don’t forget them expressing any consideration of the Oslo Accords or the evacuation of Gush Katif [from Gaza]. ].
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir responded dismissively to the meeting of the foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy on Tuesday, saying he was “deeply concerned” about Israel’s resolution to legalize nine outposts. .
“Stop worrying,” he says.
“That’s our goal, that’s our position. Nine [outposts] is good, but it’s not enough. We need a lot more [legalized],” says Ben Gvir.
In a joint statement, 75 rabbis and leaders suggested adopting the president’s compromise proposal on judicial reform.
The rabbis, adding Mosheh Lichtenstein, Ohad Teharlev, David Stav and others, say it is imperative to succeed in “as broad an agreement as can be imagined on adjustments in the judicial formula and the balance of forces between the branches of government. “The absence of such an agreement can cause a crack in people.
In a historic moment after years of restricting the pandemic, the Ministry of Health announces that as of May 15, other people infected with COVID-19 will no longer want to isolate.
Currently, anyone who tests positive will need to isolate at home for five days.
The ministry also indicates that as of February 16, the mask will no longer be in gyms and nursing homes.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the devout Zionism party, said in an interview that the judicial reshuffle will damage democracy is “an alarmist campaign. “
Smotrich says he “wouldn’t need a single day in a country with a weak court system. “
He says he has “enormous respect and appreciation for the protesters” and says supporters and critics of the government’s plan are striking for agreements.
“We are brothers,” he said. I greet the other people who left everything and came here to demonstrate. I love those other people.
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee refuses to approve a cabinet request to make greater secrecy regulations for a questionable state-owned oil infrastructure conglomerate for five years, agreeing to an extension of just one year.
On Monday, Ze’ev Elkin (New Hope) and Meir Cohen and Orna Barbivai of Yesh Atid opposed the five-year application for Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company, prompting the committee to establish a subcommittee that will meet today to continue discussions. doors. doors closed.
This subcommittee a one-year extension of the liquidation.
The resolution represents a victory for environmental, civil society teams and Americans who have raised more than three hundred objections to a proposed five-year extension.
According to a Justice Department document submitted to the cabinet earlier this month, the warring parties pointed to the EAPC’s poor pollutant record and accused confidentiality of being too broad and thorough, and not allowing oversight of companies’ activities.
They also cited the EAPC and the Government Enterprise Authority who supported lifting the confidentiality requirement.
A widely backed bill to revoke the citizenship of convicted terrorists who get PA budget for their crimes is passed through a special Knesset committee on the factor for its timing and third readings in the Knesset.
The PA will pay stipends to convicted terrorists, and the bill also applies to organizations that pay on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. The bill does not apply to Jewish terrorists.
The bill applies to both Israeli citizens and permanent citizens imprisoned following a conviction for terrorism or for aiding and abetting terrorism, and allows the interior minister to revoke his prestige after a hearing. The bill also expands the ability to revoke other people’s citizenship without a moment. citizenship, provided they have prestige of permanent residence outside Israel. Once citizenship is revoked, the user will be denied access to Israel.
But a senior Justice Ministry official raised considerations about the law’s legality with the Knesset special committee preparing the law. “This proposal is undeniable and presents legal difficulties,” Avital Sternberg, senior public law counsel at the Justice Department, told the panel. before the vote of approval.
Likud MK and special committee chairman Ofir Katz, one of the bill’s many sponsors, downplayed the legal criticism. “The final duty to prevent the next attack rests with us, elected officials and any lawyers,” he told the committee.
The bill had already been approved in its first initial readings in the Knesset with the overwhelming help of coalition and opposition MPs, a rare feat amid a pitched war between the two sides over the government’s plan to reform the judiciary.
The detention of 3 Palestinians from Shuafat refugee camp, accused of wearing down the attacks in Jerusalem yesterday, has been prolonged through a court in the capital.
A 13-year-old Palestinian boy who allegedly stabbed an Israeli teenager in Jerusalem’s Old City, wounding him, will remain in detention until Feb. 19, according to police, following a referral hearing to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court.
A 14-year-old Palestinian boy who stabbed a police officer at a checkpoint near the camp will also remain in detention until 19 February. The policeman, who also fired through the so-called friendly shots, succumbed to his wounds.
A third Palestinian who allegedly attempted to ram officials while operating in the East Jerusalem camp last night will also be detained until February 19.
Officials from the Indian source’s tax branch are raiding the BBC’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, weeks after a questionable documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi was aired, the British broadcaster said.
The BBC says it is cooperating fully. ” We hope this scenario will be resolved as soon as possible,” he said in a statement.
The Tax Department is examining documents similar to the business operations of the BBC and its Indian branch, news firm Press Trust of India reported, citing unidentified sources. India’s fiscal government declined to comment.
Human rights teams and opposition politicians denounce the move as an intimidation tactic designed to stifle the media.
The raid continues “a trend by government agencies to intimidate and harass news organizations that criticize government policies or the ruling establishment,” the Publishers Union of India said in a statement.
The investigation is “undemocratic” and “reeks of depression and shows that the Modi government is afraid of criticism,” K. C. said. tweets Venugopal, secretary-general of the opposition Congress Party. We condemn in the strongest terms those who bully. “
Members of Yisrael Beytenu are outraged by what they say is that the government did not provide enough assistance to new immigrants from the former Soviet Union in a special consultation of the Knesset’s Committee on Immigration, Integration and Diaspora Affairs.
“This is a government that plans to harm immigration from the former Soviet Union and is already hurting immigration from the former Soviet Union,” leader Avigdor Liberman said.
Speakers at the special session, hosted by committee chairman Oded Forer, denounced Immigration and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer’s plans to invest giant sums of cash to inspire immigration from the United States and France in particular, which they said discriminates against immigrants from other countries. . Countries. (Sofer’s workplace denies any form of discrimination and says it treats all immigrants equally. )
Although the consultation was open to all parliamentarians, only members of Yisrael Beytenu, which largely represents immigrants from the former Soviet Union, attended the meeting.
Forer, who has been a harsh critic of the government’s immigration and integration efforts, also notes that the government has yet to deal with a long-lasting shortage of Hebrew categories for new immigrants and has gotten rid of an allowance that was given to immigrants from the former Soviet Union that arrived after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. The government is also running to limit the Law of Return, cutting a segment that allows anyone who has at least one Jewish grandparent to immigrate.
“The government’s moves are, in practice, to diminish and close the doors of aliyah to Israel,” Forer says, using the Hebrew term for immigration to Israel. “It turns out that this government has to damage aliyah and immigrants to the State of Israel. “
The Prime Minister’s Office and the Jerusalem Municipality agree on several measures to strengthen security in the capital following the terrorist attacks.
They say the plan will come with an increase in police forces and the strengthening of 300 bus stops to help others from ramming attacks, such as Friday’s one that killed another 3 people and two young children.
Subsequently, another 700 halts will be fortified, in spaces where the need is considered less urgent.
Iran, rocked by months of protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, has released dozens of known prisoners in an apparent attempt to appease government critics.
The limited amnesty comes as the frequency and duration of meetings have declined in the winter months since their peak after the death in mid-September custody of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd.
Hundreds of others were killed, including members of the security forces, and thousands arrested, and four convicts were hanged.
Many of those detained are believed to remain behind bars, and those released on bail are still at risk of prosecution.
But as tensions on the streets have eased somewhat, Iran released an organization of high-level detainees in recent weeks, a move perceived as a measure to reduce tension after months of unrest.
Ukraine is renewing its appeal to Western countries for fighter jets to thwart Moscow’s invasion, as senior defense officials from the United States and its NATO allies say the war with Russia is reaching a critical stage.
As the war enters its decisive year late next week, the Ukrainian tactile organization meets at NATO headquarters in Brussels and Ukraine clarifies its demands.
When Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov was asked what military aid his country is seeking lately, he shows reporters the symbol of a fighter jet.
Moscow’s forces have been pressing in eastern Ukraine while strengthening their defensive lines in the south. The war has been largely static during the winter months, though both sides are expected to launch offensives when the weather improves.
Putin hoped that western Kiev would shrink, allowing him to move forward, the U. S. defense secretary said. U. S. Secretary of State Lloyd Austin at the meeting.
But Austin says the tactile organization will “help Ukraine maintain the edge in the spring counteroffensive” and will continue to plan for Kiev’s long-term needs.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Haaretz he feared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would “dangerously put his own narrow political and legal interests, and those of problematic extremists in his coalition, ahead of the long-standing interests and long-term desires of Israeli democracy.
The current administration’s action, inward and outward, may simply “not only undermine the shared values between the United States and Israel, but also further undermine the desperately needed lasting peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples,” he warned.
Senator Tim Kaine added: “Israel is a great best friend and I have been closely following the recent protests there. As tens of thousands of Israelis rally for democracy and judicial independence in their country, Netanyahu’s administration deserves to pay attention and avoid taking action. “that threaten Israel’s democratic institutions.
Aid agencies and governments are struggling to send aid to earthquake-ravaged areas of Turkey and Syria, but a week after the disaster, many are still struggling to meet basic needs, such as finding shelter from the cold.
The scenario is dire in Syria, where a 12-year civil war has confounded relief efforts and meant days of wrangling over how aid is delivered to the country, and how it is distributed. Some other people who have lost their homes say they have gained nothing. Meanwhile, in Turkey, several families are crammed into tents intended for a single person.
On Monday, the United Nations announced an agreement with Damascus to deliver UN aid through two more Turkish border crossings to rebel-held spaces in northwestern Syria, but the wishes remain enormous.
A Palestinian died two years after an IDF soldier shot him in the neck in a skirmish.
Since being shot in January 2021, Haroun Abu Aram, 26, has been paralyzed from head to toe and unable to breathe.
The incident occurred in South Hebron Hills when troops arrived to confiscate an electric generator and other appliances from the unrecognized West Bank village of al-Rakeez that were allegedly used in illegal construction.
The military said the lives of the infantrymen involved were in danger when the shooting occurred. An investigation revealed that the bullet was not aimed at Abu Aram’s neck, but it was accidentally fired after another Palestinian grabbed the soldier’s weapon, the army said after the incident. incident.
The army’s account of the incident matches that of Palestinian eyewitnesses, who claimed that the soldier intentionally shot Abu Aram.
The foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy jointly condemn Israel’s resolution to legalize nine outposts and advance plans for some 10,000 new settlements in the West Bank.
The most sensible diplomats said they were “deeply concerned” about the cabinet resolution and “strongly oppose such unilateral moves that will only serve to exacerbate Israeli-Palestinian tensions and undermine efforts for a negotiated two-state solution. “
Each of the foreign ministers’ countries has already condemned the Israeli announcement individually, and today’s appears to constitute an attempt to magnify their frustration with the extremist government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Plans to increase Israel’s presence in the West Bank have also been criticized in much of the Arab world, adding countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Israel.
The Finance Ministry’s legal adviser rejected measures requested through Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi to restrict investment for Israel’s public broadcasting company in the upcoming state budget.
Asi Messing said that the proposal had been submitted without transparent administrative procedures. He says Karhi’s preference for preventing IPBC from receiving advertising revenue may especially increase his dependence on the government.
Karhi said there was no explanation for why to declare broadcasting public in Israel and said he was trying to shut down IPBC, which broadcasts under the name Kan.
The plan has been particularly rolled back. Channel Twelve reported earlier this month that the government had to freeze the resolution as it seeks to focus on its questionable reform of the judicial formula and needs to restrict the number of public battles it faces.
The legal counsel of the Knesset Law and Justice Committee, Gur Bligh, said he had not uncovered any precedent in any other democratic country where judicial review of the law requires a unanimous resolution through each judgment in the relevant court, as proposed in an invoice submitted through the committee’s chairman. Rothman.
Under Rothman’s proposed bill, the 15 judges of the Superior Court of Justice would have to unanimously declare that a law contravenes one of the basic laws to nullify it.
The legal counsel also notes that if such a gigantic majority of High Court judges rule that a law is contrary to a Basic Law, allowing the Knesset to overturn such a ruling would be “unusual. “
Bligh argues that this requirement, along with other prerequisites of the law—adding a provision of a clause allowing the Knesset to make the law completely immune from judicial review—would particularly enhance the court’s ability to repeal laws that violate quasi-constitutional laws.
Chinese President Xi Jinping praises Beijing’s “solidarity” with Iran as he welcomes Islamic Republic President Ebrahim Raisi at the start of a three-day trip.
For an Iranian president’s first state stop in China in more than 20 years, Raisi brought a large trade and financial delegation to Beijing and welcomed Xi on a red carpet.
“In the face of complex adjustments existing in the world, times and history, China and Iran have supported (and) worked together in solidarity and cooperation,” Xi said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
China “supports Iran to safeguard sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and dignity. . . and to resist unilateralism and hegemonism,” Xi told CCTV.
Beijing “also opposes interference by external forces in Iran’s internal affairs and undermines Iran’s security and stability,” and will continue to “promote the early resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue,” Xi said.
“No matter how the foreign and regional expansion expands, China will relentlessly expand friendly cooperation with Iran. “
Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina and ambassador to the United Nations, announces her candidacy for president, former US President Donald Trump’s first primary challenger for the 2024 Republican nomination.
The announcement, delivered in a video, marks a sea change for the former Trump cabinet official, who said two years ago that she would challenge her former boss for the White House in 2024. But it has replaced his brain in recent months, citing, among other things, the country’s economic woes and the need for “generational change,” a nod to Trump’s age of 76.
At yesterday’s protest, an organization of women dressed as servants from Margaret Atwood’s e-book “The Handmaid’s Tale” about a long-term fictional society that oppresses women.
It turned out that Atwood noticed and retweeted a message about the demonstrators that read: “More than 20 maids reminded 100,000 Israelis protesting judicial reform that weakens the High Court of Justice what can happen when an organization of fanatical devout men takes over. Thank you for the inspiration We will not allow this to happen in Israel to any woman.
– Tal Sarig-Avraham (@talsarig) February 13, 2023
At the committee hearing, opposition MPs attacked the coalition for pushing the law.
MK Karine Elharrar (Yesh Atid) said to President Rothman, “How can you not be ashamed?Yesterday, emotionally you proposed, ‘Let’s communicate about it. ‘”Not a day has passed since that to the media, and here you have them back with their bulldozer trampling democracy.
Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovich said Rothman accepts the president’s call to immediately halt the procedure to allow talks, and warned that if the coalition fails to do so, yesterday’s mass protest in Jerusalem was “just the beginning. “
Likud MK Ariel Kelner subsidized Rothman, saying, “It is transparent to everyone that deep reform is in the judicial formula. Here is a formula that has penetrated into disorders over which it has no authority, as if it were some kind of super branch [of the Government].
The coalition is now continuing its efforts to reshape Israel’s justice system, disregarding mass protests and calls for pause by the president, economists and public figures.
The Knesset Committee on Constitution, Law and Justice met to discuss the draft law that is part of the plan, a day after several laws passed for their first plenary reading.
The bill under discussion would stipulate that the High Court of Justice can only overturn a law with a full panel of 15 judges ruling unanimously, and only if the law in question obviously contravenes one of the country’s semi-constitutional basic laws. It would also save the court from revoking adjustments to the Basic Laws.
The committee’s chairman, MP Simcha Rothman, rejected claims that the law would be accelerated without genuine deliberation. While he proposed holding spending discussions with the opposition, he rejected President Isaac Herzog’s call to suspend the proceedings while talks take place.
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