TEL AVIV, July 25. /TASS/. Israel’s ruling coalition, by conducting a judicial reform which sparked protests among the opposition, is fulfilling the will of the electorate, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a TV speech.
According to him, the implementation of this project is not "the end of democracy," as its opponents insist. He told the nation that the reform was "necessary" to allow an elected government to rule according to the will of the electorate, and promised that the change would not give the government and coalition full control of the courts.
The prime minister also stressed that his government was still counting on reaching a compromise with the opposition. "Despite everything, my friends, we will continue to seek talks and agreements," he said.
Members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, on Monday passed by majority vote in the second and third readings, the first bill in a set of legislative judicial reform initiatives, thus sparking mass protests by the opposition.
Sixty-four members of the 120-seat parliament from the ruling coalition voted in favor of the bill, while 56 opposition lawmakers boycotted the final vote and walked out of the hall during the session.
The legislators voted on a bill to repeal the so-called principle of reasonableness, which is part of the Israeli government's planned judicial reform and represents one of the most important and controversial aspects of the plan to reform the Jewish state’s judicial system. Once enshrined in law, the bill will limit the powers of Israel's Supreme Court, which to date has had the power to block any government decision deemed legally unreasonable; the reform will now curtail these powers.