Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a video interview with the American daily Wall Street Journal and broadcast Thursday, April 29, that he had abandoned a key provision of his controversial judicial reform which gave rise to one of the greatest movements protesting the history of Israel. “The idea of ??an override clause that allows parliament, the Knesset, to overrule Supreme Court decisions by a simple majority, I said it, I dropped it,” he said. let it be known.

Mr. Netanyahu, who had announced, at the end of March, a pause in the project to allow discussions with the opposition, said he had abandoned the so-called “derogation clause”, which was to allow Parliament to cancel by majority simply a decision of the Supreme Court. This provision, highly decried, had been adopted in first reading by the Parliament in March.

The prime minister, whose government is one of the most right-wing in the country’s history, also said in the interview that he had sought “broad consensus” with the opposition, which he said was subject to too much of “political pressure” to accept a compromise.

protest in the street

The two main opposition leaders, Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, announced on June 14 that they would suspend their participation in the reform negotiations. Mr. Lapid then accused Mr. Netanyahu “of pretending that he was open to discussion”.

Critics of the judicial reform, who have taken to the streets of the country every week since its announcement in January, believe that it risks paving the way for an illiberal or authoritarian drift. The government ensures for its part that it aims to rebalance the powers by reducing the prerogatives of the Supreme Court, considered politicized, for the benefit of Parliament.

Another highly contested provision of the reform, which changes the process for appointing judges, was also passed by MPs at first reading. In this regard, Mr. Netanyahu told the Wall Street Journal: “It will not be the current structure, but it will not be the original structure either”, without providing further details on whether or not the provision will be maintained.