THE HALFAX HEIMDALL AUGUR

Explainer-Netanyahu government challenge to Supreme Court reignites judicial row <p>JERUSALEM, July 6 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has threatened to fight a Supreme Court order regarding a media regulator, reigniting a judicial row that shook Israel in the months leading up to Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack.</p><p>The decision comes ahead of a national election expected by late October.</p><p>WHAT DID THE GOVERNMENT SAY?</p><p>In a statement on Sunday, the government said that a June 17 ruling by the Supreme Court regarding the composition of the Second Authority for Television and Radio was a clear case of judicial overreach. </p>

Israel government says it will defy Supreme Court ruling on media regulator <p>By Steven Scheer</p><p>JERUSALEM, July 5 (Reuters) - Israeli cabinet members on Sunday voted to defy a Supreme Court decision regarding the country's broadcast regulator, raising concerns of a constitutional crisis.</p><p>This is the first time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has flouted a Supreme Court ruling, although it has clashed with the judiciary in the past. After elections in 2022, it sought to limit the court's powers, drawing global criticism and mass protests in Israel. </p>

Government Defies Supreme Court: Constitutional Crisis Bianca Jones JUL 5, 2026 12:41 4 min read Start the conversation In an unprecedented constitutional confrontation, Israel's government voted unanimously Sunday to defy a Supreme Court ruling, declaring it will not recognize any decisions made by the Broadcasting Council that justices restored to power last month. The dramatic cabinet resolution marks an extraordinary escalation in the clash between Israel's executive and judicial branches. The decision, proposed jointly by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and Justice Minister Yariv Levin, states explicitly that the government will treat as "null and void" all actions taken by the Broadcasting Council for the Second Authority, which the High Court reinstated in mid-June despite the body falling below the two-thirds quorum mandated by law. "When the High Court tramples the law, the state will not lend it a hand," Karhi declared following the vote. "Supreme Court justices are not the Knesset , and arrogance does not grant authority to erase explicit statutory requirements, even if they find them inconvenient. The rule of law is not the rule of judges." The Legal Flashpoint Th…

Israel government says it will defy Supreme Court ruling on media ... Israel government says it will defy Supreme Court ruling on media regulator By Steven Scheer Jul 5, 2026 Add AL-MONITOR on Google Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a news conference, following a U.S.-Iran deal, in Jerusalem, June 15, 2026. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool — Ronen Zvulun By Steven Scheer JERUSALEM, July 5 (Reuters) - Israeli cabinet members on Sunday voted to defy a Supreme Court decision regarding the country's broadcast regulator, raising concerns of a constitutional crisis. This is the first time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has flouted a Supreme Court ruling, although it has clashed with the judiciary in the past. After elections in 2022, it sought to limit the court's powers, drawing global criticism and mass protests in Israel. The judicial reform was shelved after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, although some parts have since been resurrected. Israeli law requires the Second Authority for Television and Radio to have a minimum number of members to make decisions. The government argues that because the council no longer meets that requirement, it has no authorit…

Israel's Judicial Reforms: What to Know | Council on Foreign Relations Council on Foreign Relations Share By experts and staff Published July 26, 2023 10:57 a.m. Steven A. Cook CFR Expert Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies Share Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has passed the first part in the planned overhaul of the country’s judiciary system. What does this new legislation do, and why is it so controversial? The Knesset passed legislation that abolishes the “reasonableness doctrine,” which the Supreme Court of Israel has employed to evaluate government policies. It is a practice used by high courts in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, among other countries. The doctrine operates exactly as it sounds: the court determines whether a given government policy is sensible and sound. For example, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Shas party leader Aryeh Deri as minister of finance, the Supreme Court determined—based on the reasonableness doctrine—that he was not eligible to serve in the position due to previous convictions of bribery, fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, and various tax offenses. Now that the Knesset has ma…

Israel parliament passes judicial reform law, opposition challenges Law boosts officials’ power to appoint judges, defying anti-Netanyahu protests JERUSALEM: Israel’s parliament Thursday passed a law expanding elected officials’ power to appoint judges, defying a years-long movement against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial reforms that saw massive street protests. The approval comes as Netanyahu’s government, one of the most right-wing in Israel’s history, is locked in a standoff with the supreme court after beginning proceedings to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and Ronen Bar, head of the internal security agency. The opposition, which swiftly filed a petition with the supreme court challenging the vote, views these judicial reforms as signs of Netanyahu’s authoritarian shift toward an illiberal democracy. The legislation was approved by a vote of 67 in favour and one against, with the opposition boycotting the early-morning vote. Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has 120 lawmakers. The overall judicial reform package had sparked one of the largest protest movements in Israel’s history in 2023 before being overtaken by the war in Gaza. …

Justice Minister Levin Threatens To Revive Controversial Judicial ... Justice Minister Levin Threatens To Revive Controversial Judicial Overhaul, Clashes With High Court The Media Line Staff 12/15/2024 Justice Minister Yariv Levin on Saturday indicated plans to revive the government’s stalled judicial overhaul, issuing a sharp critique of the High Court of Justice. Levin accused the court of overstepping its authority, usurping the powers of the Knesset and the executive branch, and declared that the government had “no choice at this time but to act in order to restore its powers.” The remarks come days after the High Court ordered Levin to hold a vote in the Judicial Selection Committee by January 16 to appoint a new Supreme Court president, a move he has resisted for over a year. Such a vote would likely appoint liberal Justice Isaac Amit, whom Levin and the hard-right coalition view as adversarial. Give the gift of hope We practice what we preach: accurate, fearless journalism. But we can't do it alone. On the ground in Gaza, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, and more Our program trained more than 100 journalists Calling out fake news and reporting real facts On the ground in Gaz…

Daily Briefing July 6: High Court showdown: Is Israel facing a constitutional crisis? <p>Legal correspondent Jeremy Sharon reviews the implications of the government's declared refusal to obey a High Court ruling on commercial broadcast media</p> <p>The post <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/daily-briefing-july-6-high-court-showdown-is-israel-facing-a-constitutional-crisis/">Daily Briefing July 6: High Court showdown: Is Israel facing a constitutional crisis?</a> appeared first on <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com">The Times of Israel</a>.</p> <figure><img src="https://static-cdn.toi-media.com/www/uploads/2026/07/July-6-DB-CMS-e1783333428248-1024x640.png" title="Daily Briefing July 6: High Court showdown: Is Israel facing a constitutional crisis?" border="0" width="160" height="100" class="type:primaryImage"></figure>

Israel's High Court calls for compromise while weighing petitions to ... Read this article in: National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir speaks to the media outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, April 15, 2026. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) After a ten-hour-long, stormy debate on Wednesday, Israel’s High Court did not issue a ruling on a petition to dismiss National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir over his alleged politicization of the police. Instead, the nine judges called on the government and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to find a compromise that would restrain the controversial minister, instead of taking the unprecedented step of forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire Ben Gvir. They also questioned whether, given the proximity of elections, an extreme step like ordering the prime minister to dismiss a minister is even necessary. The case reignited unresolved tensions from pre-war judicial reforms, including debates about the court’s power to curtail a democratically elected government, and the coalition’s desire to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who has called on the court to remove Ben Gvir from his post. Government ministers have vowed t…

Authoritarianism alert! Israeli AG Baharav-Miara has warned that the Netanyahu gov't refusal to comply with a Supreme Court injunction "undermines the basic principles of the rule of law", and poses a threat to the justice system overall. www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent...

The Assault on Israel's Judiciary - The Century Foundation The Assault on Israel’s Judiciary Benjamin Netanyahu no longer governs Israel, but the country’s nationalist and illiberal trajectories run far deeper than one individual. Israel’s increasingly entrenched hold over Palestinian territories is one obvious manifestation of the country’s right-wing agenda. But in recent years, the most important emerging aim of the nationalist right-wing leadership has been to undermine a core pillar of democracy—the judiciary. Over the past decade, various actors have converged in an aggressive, multifaceted campaign to gut the legitimacy of Israel’s judicial branch and constrain its authority. The efforts include legislation, procedural changes, judicial appointments, and election campaigns targeting the judiciary; right-wing media attacks and anti-judiciary civil society activities; and public rhetoric bordering on incitement—including exhortations of government figures to ignore legal rulings. Throughout, the campaign has advanced a notion of “governability” that promotes unrestrained executive power. In practice, hardly any of the most severe policies or legislation to constrain judicial …

Constitutional Crisis? Government Approves Decision To Ignore High ... In a dramatic political and legal escalation, the Israeli government on Sunday unanimously approved a proposal declaring that it will not recognize the High Court’s ruling reinstating the Second Authority Council appointed by the previous government. The resolution states that a judicial ruling that directly contradicts the law is null and void and will not be recognized, and that any decisions or appointments made by the council would not be recognized—including approval of the sale of Channel 13 to a group of high-tech entrepreneurs. The Second Authority for Television and Radio is an Israeli commercial television and radio authority, established by a Knesset law in 1990. The Second Authority issues licenses for commercial television and regional radio stations, handles citizen complaints, ensures that commercial advertisements are run within the allotted time, and ensures that the operators maintain a certain mix of program genres as stipulated in their licenses. The cabinet approved a joint proposal by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and Justice Minister Yariv Levin, announcing that it will not reco…

Israeli government increases politicians' role in selecting judges ... Israel Israeli government increases politicians’ role in selecting judges, passing key piece of judicial overhaul The protests against the overhaul also resumed ahead of the vote. People protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, March 26, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90) Advertisement By Ben Sales March 26, 2025 5:17 pm Updated March 27, 2025 10:27 am Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... With war raging in Gaza and protests rocking the streets of Jerusalem, the Israeli government has passed a key piece of a plan that once sparked turmoil across Israel: the judicial overhaul. The protests against the overhaul, which dominated Israelis’ attention prior to Oct. 7, 2023, resumed ahead of the vote early Thursday morning. On Wednesday, thousands massed in Jerusalem, including lawmakers, as Israel’s parliament prepared to pass the law, which increases politicians’ influence over judicial appointments. The tally in Knesset, Israel’s parliament, was 67-1, as the opposition boycotted the vote en masse in protest. The fierce debate over the law has been something of a throwback. Throughou…