JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s Supreme Court said on Wednesday it would hear an appeal against a new law that curbs some of its own powers, pitting it against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government that is seeking an overhaul of the judicial system.
His coalition on Monday approved an amendment limiting the court’s authority to void government and ministerial decisions by deeming them “unreasonable”, in a parliamentary vote boycotted by the centre-left opposition and which set off fresh protests across the country.
A bench decision posted on the court’s website said a hearing will be set for the appeal in September. The court did not issue an injunction against the new law, which came into effect on Wednesday.
A political watchdog and Israel’s bar association had petitioned the court to intervene.
The new law is part of broader judicial changes the religious-nationalist government announced in January – soon after being sworn in – that it says are needed to push back against what it describes as overreach by a Supreme Court that it says has become too politically interventionist.
Critics say the changes will open the door to corruption and abuses of power by removing effective checks on the governing executive’s authority.
The planned changes have caused a deep divide in Israeli society, igniting months of unprecedented nationwide protests and stirring concern among allies abroad for the health of Israel’s 75-year-old democracy.
(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Dan Williams and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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