For almost nine months, many Israelis have been protesting every week against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s plan to change the judicial system. They are worried that it could greatly limit the Supreme Court’s authority, which is the only group that checks the government’s power.
Many Palestinians are scared that if the Supreme Court becomes weaker, it could allow for more Jewish settlements to be built in the occupied West Bank. This could eventually lead to the annexation of the land that Palestinians want for their own state.
Many Israelis have been protesting because they are worried that democracy and human rights are getting worse. However, not many people are talking about how this could affect the over three million Palestinians who live in the West Bank under Israeli control.
Sawsan Zaher, who is a lawyer that defends the rights of Arab minorities in Israel, believes that the consequences of this situation could be very significant. She calls the overhaul a “judicial coup,” saying it could lead to the West Bank being taken over without any criticism or review from the Supreme Court.
Zaher is worried because of the things that the Netanyahu government has done and said since they took office at the end of last year. The group of people in charge of the government includes several individuals from West Bank who have a lot of influence. The agreement they made states that Israel should have control over the West Bank, like it is a part of Israel.
Under Prime Minister Netanyahu’s very conservative government, Israel has given its approval for a very large number of houses to be built in settlements in the West Bank, according to a report by the peace organization Peace Now in July.
Many countries and the United Nations believe that the West Bank and East Jerusalem are being controlled by Israel against the law. They also see the Israeli settlements in these areas as illegal according to international law. Israel says that there is an ongoing disagreement about who owns the land and disagrees with the idea that their settlements in that area are against the law.
Many people in Israel agree with their government’s decision to take over more land in areas that are currently controlled by others. A survey done in 2020 by a group in Jerusalem called the Israel Democracy Institute found that over half of Jewish Israelis agreed with the idea of Israel having control over the West Bank. This is something that Netanyahu has expressed he wants.
The overhaul consists of several new laws. The first of these laws was approved in July with a unanimous vote of 64-0. This happened because all members of the opposing party left in protest before the vote. This law takes away the Supreme Court’s ability to say if government decisions are wrong.
People who are in favor of the change believe that the way the judicial system works in Israel is not good and strongly favors the court by giving it too much power. For a long time, some people have been asking for changes in the court system, believing it would help create a fair balance among the different branches of the government.
Last week, all 15 judges of the Supreme Court came together for the first time to hear a case about the reasonableness law.
The judges asked both sides’ lawyers many tough questions, making it hard to tell how they will decide. We don’t know when the court will tell us if they think the reasonableness law is fair or not.
This decision could be very important because the reasonableness law changes one of Israel’s 13 fundamental laws. Israel is different from many other countries because it doesn’t have a written constitution. Instead, it depends on fundamental rules and previous court decisions that might eventually become a constitution. The court has never invalidated a Basic Law or a change to it.
Zaher told CNN that the main goal of the judicial coup is to prevent the Supreme Court from reviewing Basic Laws or government decisions.
Experts say that the Supreme Court of Israel usually supports the expansion of settlements in Israel, but sometimes it allows Palestinians to seek legal remedies in limited situations.
Eliav Lieblich, a professor of law at Tel Aviv University, stated that the court has never prevented the settlement movement from progressing. “It never decided whether the settlement projects were legal or not. ”
According to Lieblich, it helped in offering special protections when the land or property of Palestinians was taken or used for settlements.
Zaher stated that Palestinians have never thought the Supreme Court supports their cause. Netanyahu’s changes might eliminate any remaining ways to oppose policies seen as violating their rights.
“Zaher estimated that the Supreme Court did not protect Palestinian rights in the West Bank in 95% of cases. ”
Palestinians in the West Bank have different laws compared to Israelis. They have to follow the rules of different authorities, like the Palestinian Authority and Israeli military laws. Palestinians living in the West Bank can ask Israeli courts to make decisions against their houses being taken away, destroyed, or their lands being seized. However, it may be difficult for their petitions to be successful.
Human rights groups say that the Supreme Court mostly agrees to destroy the homes of Palestinian families involved in attacks on Israelis. They hardly ever side with Palestinians who try to stop this from happening. The practice has received negative feedback from rights groups because it is seen as a form of punishment for a whole group of people. Israel believes that by taking actions to prevent and discourage future attacks, it can make sure they do not happen again.
Palestinians have occasionally experienced some uncommon successes. In 2005, the highest court told the government to find a different path for some of its security wall in the northern West Bank, so that it wouldn’t cause too many troubles for the Palestinians. A year before, the International Court of Justice in The Hague stated that the whole barrier is against the law.
In 2012, Israel’s highest court said that some Palestinian people who owned land should take down five buildings. These buildings were built by Israeli settlers in the West Bank near a Palestinian village called Dura al-Qara.
In 2017, Israeli security forces destroyed nine houses that were illegally built on Palestinian land in a West Bank village called Ofra. The people living in the settlement of Ofra asked a court to let them stay in their homes, but the court said they need to leave and their homes will be destroyed. The court decided in 2015 that the building should be knocked down. The case was filed by a group helping the person who owns the land 7 years before that.
In some situations, rulings that were initially in support of Palestinians have been changed to be against them. Last year, something unusual happened when the high court made a decision. They ruled that a settlement outpost – Israeli houses in the West Bank that were built without permission from the government – can stay on private Palestinian land. This happened even though the court had originally said that the outpost should be taken away almost two years ago.
Palestinians believe that if the Netanyahu government continues to expand settlements, there will be even less control on expansion when the Supreme Court is no longer a bureaucratic obstacle for the government.
Zaher said that the annexation might happen much faster than expected.
Ahmed Tibi, a Palestinian-Israeli member of Israel’s parliament and leader of the Ta’al party, stated that the reasonableness law is supported by far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, who are both settlers. According to Tibi, these supporters want to manipulate the legal system to make it easier to take over land that is currently under the control of others.
Tibi told CNN that many ideas in the judicial overhaul would help the settlers. Anything that helps the settlers become stronger makes the Palestinians become weaker.
Gershon Baskin, who runs the Holy Land Bond investment fund, thinks that Netanyahu’s plan for the courts is mainly focused on expanding settlements in East Jerusalem.
Baskin said that if Netanyahu succeeds in implementing the reform, the limited opportunities that Palestinians have within the Israeli High Court will be taken away in the near future.
If the Supreme Court is weakened and not able to review government decisions, it would be easier to formally annex the West Bank, although this is seen as an extreme possibility. He said that if judicial review becomes weaker, it would be easier to slowly take actions that could effectively lead to annexation.
He said that if you reduce the power of judicial review, you give more power to the executive branch. This is already a situation where one side gains while the other loses, between Israel and the Palestinians.