Israeli Supreme Court to Consider Law Weakening Its Power

Israel’s Supreme Court said Wednesday it would hear petitions in September seeking to overturn a law passed this week by parliament’s right-wing governing coalition to curb the court’s authority to overturn laws that the court considers to be “unreasonable.”

The law is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broader plan to overhaul Israel’s judiciary that has spawned months of street demonstrations against it and divided the Jewish state.

On Tuesday, most doctors across the country staged a one-day walkout to protest the law and a group of high-tech workers paid for black ads on the front pages of major newspapers with an inscription calling the parliament’s action “A Black Day for Israeli Democracy.”

The most secular elements of the country have protested the changes as undermining the country’s standing as the only democracy in the Middle East. More nationalist and religious sectors, including the legislative coalition led by Netanyahu, have voiced support for the changes to undercut rulings by appointed judges they view as too liberal and interfering with the actions of elected lawmakers.

The case in September will give the country’s top court a chance to rule on the scope of its own authority.

The court said it would consider the new law after Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, returns from recess in September.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a good governance group, said its petition contends that the law undermines Israel’s democratic standing and was passed through a flawed legislative process.

“We are ready. We will appear in the Supreme Court to defend Israeli democracy and we will do everything we can to stop the coup,” Eliad Shraga, the group’s chairman, said on Wednesday.