Knesset panel plows ahead with judicial appointments bill despite 5,400 reservations

The Knesset was moving closer to approving one of the coalition’s core bills in its effort to overhaul the judiciary on Wednesday, which will give the government control of most judicial appointments if passed in its current form — despite thousands of reservations submitted against the measure by the opposition.

The committee reviewing the bill is expected to advance the measure on Wednesday and the final Knesset votes for the bill to become law are expected to be held next week before the Knesset takes a monthlong break in April.

In voting that went to the early hours of Wednesday morning, and then resumed later Wednesday morning, the Knesset’s Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman angered the opposition by switching from individual votes to voting on the 5,400 reservations in batches.

“The man never misses an opportunity to show what democracy will be like after they finish legislating their coup,” said Labor MK Gilad Kariv, who led an opposition walkout of the meeting.

But while the opposition protested, Rothman had won approval from the Knesset’s legal adviser and the committee’s legal adviser to switch to batch voting, a standard move when there are more than 2,500 reservations submitted, many of them repetitive. READ MORE