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Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, passed an important part of the country’s far-right government’s judicial overhaul plan last week despite protests and criticism both within and outside the country. The Benjamin Netanyahu government’s plan to “reform the judiciary” has sharply divided the country with the political opposition and civil society groups accusing the ruling coalition, composed of rightwing, ultra-Orthodox Jewish and extreme right parties, of undermining the country’s democracy from within. The government says the legislation, which would curtail the powers of the Supreme Court, is aimed at “restoring the balance” between the executive and the judiciary, while critics say it would bring the courts under the ambit of the government. Israel’s polity (and Parliament) has shifted to the right over the years, while the courts haven’t. The current government is the farthest right government in Israel’s history. The far-right want a freer hand in implementing their agenda, which included transforming the Israeli society and tightening Israel’s grip on the Palestinian territories further.
The legislation passed in the Knesset does away with “the reasonability doctrine”, which the Supreme Court has employed in the past to assess government decisions and ministerial appointments. But this is only one part of the proposed overhaul plan. The original plan also aims to empower Parliament to override Supreme Court decisions through an absolute majority vote, give more control to the government in judicial appointments and free the Ministers from the requirement of following the advice from their legal advisers (guided by the Attorney General). In total, the reforms would strengthen the hands of the government over the judiciary. But the protests against the overhaul plan has spread across different segments of Israeli society, from students to workers to military reservists, posing a serious challenge to the Netanyahu government. The Supreme Court has also agreed to hear petitions challenging the Knesset legislation, which sets the country on the path of a constitutional showdown. In this explainer in The Hindu FAQ, I look at the various questions about the judicial overhaul plan and how it impacts Israel’s polity.
Islamic State strikes Pakistan
At least 54 people were killed and over 100 injured in a suicide attack in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. The attack targeted a political rally by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), a hardline Islamist party led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, a key member of Pakistan’s ruling coalition of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sherif. The Islamic State-Khorasan, the regional arm of the global terrorist group, has claimed responsibility for the attack. Pakistan has seen a rise in terrorist attacks in recent years, particularly after the Taliban recaptured Afghanistan in August 2021. In January, at least 74 were killed in an attack on a mosque in Peshawar, the provincial capital of KP, by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (also known as the Pakistan Taliban which have close ideological links with the Afghan Taliban but are organisationally different). A month later, another attack there left over 100 dead. Some of them were claimed by the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP, which is also called the Pakistani Taliban) and some others by the Islamic State-K.
In this editorial, The Hindu writes that Pakistan is “paying a heavy price for its decades-long strategy of supporting Islamist extremists for its geopolitical goals”. When the Taliban, who were harboured by the Pakistani establishment, returned to Kabul, many analysts saw that as a moment of strategic victory for Pakistan. But it “seems to have emboldened their Pakistani brethren and allowed the IS-K to emerge as the most powerful armed opposition to the Taliban regime in Kabul. And the porous borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, which the latter once used to support militancy in the former, are now used by terrorists to spread terror across the frontier.”
Neighbourhood watch
China’s leader Xi Jinping has removed the country’s recently appointed Foreign Minister Qin Gang after only seven months in office, following a still unexplained month-long absence that triggered speculation both within and outside China, reports Ananth Krishnan. Observers have cited both health and political reasons as possible explanations for his sudden removal, but the Chinese government did not give any clear answer. A day after his removal, the Chinese Foreign Ministry scrubbed all information about the Minister from its website. Mr. Qin is still listed as a State Councilor in the Cabinet and as a member of the party Central Committee, leading some observers to suggest his removal as Foreign Minister might signal the start of a political investigation, with further measures possible once it runs its course in coming months, writes Ananth.
Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Sri Lanka to meet Tamil aspirations and its commitment to implement the 13th Amendment, Sri Lanka’s ruling party rejected the prospect, contending that President Ranil Wickremesinghe had no mandate for it, reports Meera Srinivasan. According to Sagara Kariyawasam, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP or People’s Front), Mr. Wickremesinghe had “no moral right” to implement the 13th Amendment, unless he obtained a fresh mandate for it from the people. Mr. Modi, in his press statement after meeting Mr. Wickremesinghe on July 21, said: “We hope that the Government of Sri Lanka will fulfill its commitment to implement the 13th Amendment and conduct Provincial Council elections,” referring to the Sri Lankan legislation that followed the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 and guarantees a measure of power devolution to the provinces.
The Top Five
What we are reading – the best of The Hindu’s Opinion and Analysis.
- Hun Manet | The next-generation dynast- The Western-educated four-star General is set to take over the reins of Cambodia after his father and Prime Minister Hun Sen, who ruled the country with an iron fist for 38 years, announced his decision to step aside after ‘sweeping’ the elections, writes Saumya Kalia.
- The SCO is a success story that can get better - Shanghai Cooperation Organization member-states should strengthen strategic communication, deepen practical cooperation, and support each other’s development, writes Ma Jia
- No US President can walk back on climate change commitments now: John Kerry - The U.S. Special Envoy for Climate says in an interview with Suhasini Haidar that America is committed to the $100-billion annual fund for developing countries, blames Trump for delay.
- ASEAN, a persistence with dialogue, on a trodden path- Without unity, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ centrality loses much of its credibility, writes Rajiv Bhatia.
- 40 years since ‘Black July’, little space in Sri Lanka to remember the dead-The anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983 claimed thousands of lives and rendered several thousand homeless; The Civil Rights Movement of Sri Lanka termed the series of incidents a ‘holocaust, reports Meera Srinivasan.
