Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to criticism from German Chancellor Olaf Sholz about his proposed judicial reforms, noting that Germany, too, uses politicians to select the country’s judges.
Currently, Israeli judges are selected by a commission largely composed of judges and lawyers. Critics say that the process produces ideological conformity, allowing the secular, Ashkenazi elite to entrench judicial power.
Netanyahu’s proposal would reflect the process in the United States and several other democracies, in which judges would be approved by democratically-elected representatives, in the hope of increasing their diversity.
The Israeli left, however, has stirred international concern with disruptive protests against the reforms, in which opposition leaders have accused Netanyahu of staging a “coup.”
In an opening statement during a joint press conference in Berlin after the two leaders met, Scholz commented on the judicial reforms: “I must not hide from you the fact that we are concerned about that. The independence of the judiciary is a precious democratic asset.”
Netanyahu responded:
Israel is a liberal democracy, and will remain a liberal democracy. I personally have led Israel for almost the last 16 years, and I have helped liberalize the Israeli system — liberalize its economy. liberalize its way of life, advance the rights of LGBT. How may of you know, contrary to the image that is foisted, that the Likud has a powerful LGBT cell, and its leader was nominated by me, and elected overwhelmingly to be the speaker of the Israeli Knesset?
…
Israel has an independent judiciary, but many feel … it is an all-powerful judiciary. An independent judiciary is not an all-powerful judiciary. The judicial reform is meant to bring into balance the three branches of government. And when that is accomplished, we will have the same balance that exists in any other democracy.
…
In most countries, including in Germany, judges are chosen by elected officials. How you choose them, how you make sure that no one side overrides the other, is important. But the ideas that are presented in Israel, as though this is a break with democracy, is not true. Israel was, Israel will remain, a liberal democracy, not different, and as strong, and as vibrant as it was before, and as Europe is today.
Later, he added that Germany does not allow judges “veto power” over new appointments to the bench, as is currently the case in Israel.
“Israel is not going to abolish democratic principles. If the ‘democratic principle’ that we’re about to abolish is that judges do not elect judges, do not have the veto power over electing judges, then none of your — Germany is not following democratic principles, because judges do not have veto power in Germany. They don’t have veto power in many other countries. So it’s absurd.”
“We’re not trying to change Israel’s democracy. We’re trying to bring it in line with what is common, and acceptable, in just about every western democracy.”
He later repeated his arguments in Hebrew, pointing out that if critics were right that Israel’s reforms were a “disaster,” then the same applied to many democracies around the world, including France and Germany.
He also said that he would have liked to reach an agreement with the opposition, but that the opposition was more interested in creating a political crisis that could trigger new elections, rather than agreeing on reforms.
Netanyahu faced protests on his departure from Israel, and hundreds of Israeli protesters greeted him in Berlin.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.