Photo/Illutration Israeli police disperse demonstrators blocking a road during a protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to overhaul the judicial system in Jerusalem on July 24. (AP Photo)

The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, on July 24 ramrodded through one of the key bills for the judicial reform plans being advocated by the administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The bill eliminates the Supreme Court’s power to annul the government’s decisions and personnel appointments that the court finds unreasonable.

The passage of the bill was a rash act that undermines the foundations of democracy, which ensure mutual checks between the three branches of government to prevent runaway behavior of those in power and to protect citizens’ freedoms.

The way the administration is drawing on its weight of numbers to snub the opposition is also problematic.

Also forthcoming are deliberations on a bill that would allow the Knesset to override a Supreme Court ruling that a law is void, as well as on a bill that would allow the government to step up its interventions in the appointments of judges.

The reforms are evidently aimed at emasculating the authority of the judiciary.

Israel has no written Constitution. It has the unicameral Knesset and a parliamentary Cabinet system. That means no bounds are set by a Constitution and there are no mutual checks between chambers of the parliament.

Diminishing the power and independence of the judiciary could allow the government to have its way unbridled.

Netanyahu argues that Knesset members should have more power than judges, who are not elected officials.

The prime minister, however, should realize that the rights of minorities could be repressed if decisions were to be made by the majority alone.

The presence of far-right political parties in the ruling coalition partly accounts for the administration’s high-handed manners being billed as “reforms.”

The far-right parties not only deny the rights of the Palestinians living in territories that Israel has occupied with military force but also argue openly that occupied territories should be annexed into Israel. They also intend to expand Jewish settlements, which are considered a violation of international law.

And the judiciary presents an obstacle to what they wish to do. In fact, the Supreme Court has often put the brakes on runaway moves of the far right, including by ordering settlement houses to be removed.

The country’s citizens rightly harbor a deep sense of alarm about the way the foundations of their democratic state are coming under threat.

Waves of protests have spread from the legal community to the business circles and the armed forces after the reform plans were announced in January.

And some 350,000 citizens took part in protest demonstrations across Israel ahead of the latest passage of the bill.

A divided society appears inevitable if the weight of numbers is used to ramrod policies on which public opinion is divided.

The consequences go way beyond the internal politics of a single nation, given the unceasing war and tension in the Middle East.

Washington, which had called for withdrawal of the bill, expressed disappointment at its passage. Israel’s ties with Arab nations have also become strained despite earlier signs of rapprochement.

Netanyahu should take the situation seriously.

Israel’s hard line that relies on military power has sometimes spawned international friction, but the country has still maintained its international confidence thanks likely to the high marks it has received as a democratic state.

The nation’s leaders should realize that the credibility could be lost if they were to become vulnerable to immediate political interests and make light of the value of democracy.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 28

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