Thursday, 30 March 2023

Netanyahu rejects Biden's call to drop Israel judicial overhaul

 


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reacted angrily to comments by the US president, who urged him to walk away from his controversial judicial reform plans.

"They cannot continue down this road," Joe Biden told reporters.

Mr Netanyahu later tweeted that Israel would make its own decisions, "not based on pressures from abroad".

It comes after protests this week brought Israel to a standstill, forcing him to pause the proposals.

The protests have intensified since Mr Netanyahu returned to power at the end of last year, leading the most right-wing, nationalist government in Israel's history and promising to curb the powers of the judiciary.

His plans would give the government full control over the committee which appoints judges and would ultimately strip the Supreme Court of crucial powers to strike down legislation that it saw as effectively unconstitutional.

Mr Netanyahu says they would stop the courts over-reaching their powers and that they were voted for by the public at the last election. But most legal scholars say they would effectively destroy the independence of the judiciary, while opposition figures describe them as an attempted "regime coup".


Read more at source - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-65110875

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