The Knesset plenum will likely vote late tonight for the first reading of the controversial Reasonableness Standard Bill, which would block the court’s ability to evaluate the reasonableness of lawmakers’ decisions.
While the agenda for Monday’s plenum has not yet been published, a number of coalition members said last week that they expect the first reading to occur Monday. The plenum begins at 4 p.m. and the opposition is likely to filibuster for as long as it can – meaning that the actual vote may only occur late into the night or even early Tuesday morning.
The bill’s passage will set off a “Day of Resistance,” protest leaders announced on Thursday. Beginning at 8 a.m. Tuesday, protesters will hold “demonstrations, marches, convoys, and disruptions throughout the country,” the protest leaders said in a statement Saturday. Later on, a mass protest is to begin outside Ben-Gurion Airport, and additional demonstrations and marches are to continue in the evening.
Nationwide protests to be held if Israel's Knesset passes controversial bill
A number of major employers and academic institutions announced on Sunday that they would enable their workers or students to join the protests. These include the BIG shopping center chain, the Agmon law firm, Reichman University, Haifa University, and more.
Channel 12 reported on Sunday that the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, led by MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party), will begin already on Tuesday to prepare the bill for its second and third reading. Once the bill passes its preparation in the committee, it will return to the plenum for those readings, after which it will become law. The coalition intends to pass the bill into law prior to the Knesset’s summer recess, which begins on July 31.
What is the reasonableness standard bill?
The bill in question is an amendment to the Basic Law: The Judiciary, which would block Israel’s courts from applying what is known as the “reasonableness standard” to decisions made by elected officials. The reasonableness standard is a common law doctrine that allows for judicial review against government administrative decisions that are deemed beyond the scope of what a responsible and reasonable authority would undertake.
Proponents of the law argue that it is a highly subjective tool for judicial activism that allows the court to subvert government policy with its own views. Critics, including the attorney-general, argue that the tool is essential to counter corruption and to ensure the protection of individuals from arbitrary and capricious government decisions.
The court employed the reasonableness standard, for example, when it ruled in January that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to appoint Shas chairman Arye Deri to two ministerial positions, interior and health – despite his three criminal convictions for bribery, tax fraud, and breach of trust as a former interior minister – was “unreasonable in the extreme.”
Netanyahu was forced to fire Deri. Should the reasonableness standard bill pass into law, the prime minister may attempt to reappoint Deri to his former positions as interior and health minister.
"I can tell you - agreements are possible – in general, and certainly on the specific issue of the “reasonablenes
Michael Starr contributed to this report.