Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is visiting Berlin, plans to continue passing bills in the parliament. The goal is to narrow the power of the Supreme Court.
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting Berlin in the middle of the constitutional crisis shaking his homeland.
In Israel there have been protests against the government’s proposed law reforms. The government would like to reduce the power of the Supreme Court.
In Berlin, too, Israeli demonstrators were welcoming Netanyahu. There are thousands of Israelis in the city.
Read here an analysis of the topic.
According to the protesters, the Supreme Court guarantees democracy in Israel and curbing its power at the same time narrows the possibilities of democracy. There have been hundreds of thousands of people at the demonstrations.
Germany is worried about Israel’s reforms
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the Federal President of Germany in Berlin Frank-Walter Steinmeier that of the Chancellor By Olaf Scholz.
Netanyahu and Scholz visited the Jewish memorial at the Grunewald train station.
At a joint press conference, Netanyahu and Scholz brought up the ongoing constitutional crisis in Israel. Scholz said that Germany shares democratic values with Israel and is a good friend of Israel.
– We are following Israel’s discussion on reforming the law. I don’t want to hide the fact that we are following it with great care, Olaf Scholz said.
Scholz also pointed out that the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank will not help bring peace to the Middle East.
Netanyahu, on the other hand, assured that the purpose of the reforms of the judicial system is to improve democracy. He said the government might still make some changes to it.
The government will advance the reforms either with or without the opposition.
– Criticism of the reform is ridiculous and absurd, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Herzog uses the civil war to tame scaremongers
President of Israel Isaac Herzog presented a compromise solution to the constitutional crisis on Wednesday. In the darkest estimates, it has been feared that Israel could drift into a civil war.
– Anyone who talks about a real civil war and the possibility of crossing that line does not understand what they are talking about, President Herzog said.
In Israel, the president is mostly a ceremonial post.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed the compromise proposal. However, he has not said that he accepts it.
The government’s goal is to get its bills concerning the judiciary and the position of the Supreme Court through the country’s parliament, the Knesset, by the beginning of April.