Bank Heads, Treasury Officials are Latest to Warn Against Israel Judicial Reform

Big finance has emerged as the next pressure group stopping at nothing in its quest to overturn the Israeli government’s plan for judicial reform, with bank heads and treasury officials issuing grim threats it will turn “turn Israel into a dictatorship.”

Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron warned against the reform in an interview with CNN, saying it could “weaken the independence” of the judiciary, and threaten Israel’s economy. The Bank of Israel, by law, is barred from subordination to politicians, yet the rules of the game are different for the left.

(Supreme Court President Esther Hayut routinely weighs in on the reform debate as if she was a member of the opposition, despite the obvious conflict in interest.)

A letter to Netanyahu signed by representatives of the Israel Business Forum included the heads of five banks, Israeli conglomerates like the Strauss group, and insurance giants.

“We call on you to immediately stop the planned legislative moves, chief among them the law to change the committee for the selection of judges,” read the letter, referring to one bill proposed by the reform which would allow elected officials to have more sway in the selection of judges — as is the case in the U.S. — rather than an “independent committee” comprised of judges themselves.

“This law seriously harms the legal system and undermines the foundations of democracy based on the separation of powers and the independence of the legal system, and turns Israel into a dictatorship,” read the letter, according to a translation by The Times of Israel.

“This move will seriously damage Israel’s economy, and beyond that it will damage Israeli society as a whole, its resilience, its security and its values,” the letter charged.

“The forum rejects with disgust the threats and attacks on the gatekeepers in Israel, the High Court of Justice, the attorney general, the IDF, the Shin Bet and the police,” the letter added.

Finance Ministry officials have warned Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that the reform could cost the country between NIS 50-100b ($14- 28b) annual growth loss.

However, former director general of the Finance Ministry Shmuel Slavin has dismissed the claims as fear-mongering. “The legislative reform is definitely the right path … It will actually help the economy,” he told Israel’s Makor Rishon newspaper.

Slavin, who also served as economic advisor to Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir, said those attempting to “predict the future [are] doing so with a political bias.”

He accused Israeli justices of “writing poetry instead of judgments.”

As Breitbart has reported, other leading figures in Israel’s financial elite have joined the protests against the reform, including Jacob Frenkel, a recent chair of JP Morgan Chase International and former head of the Bank of Israel, who told a crowd in Tel Aviv on Saturday night that the Netanyahu government is “destroying the Zionist enterprise from within.”