Senior Torah Judaism officials expressed anger that Prime Minister Netanyahu announced in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he was removing the Override Clause from the legislative agenda, telling Israel Hayom: "Just because Netanyahu waived the Override Clause does not mean that we gave up – there is a coalition agreement and we demand everything in it."
Haredi anger stems mainly from the issue of the draft law that is expected to be advanced during the winter conference. Goldknopf and Gafni are not willing to give up the Likud's commitment to them in the coalition negotiations according to which the draft law will receive protection from High Court intervention.
The option that was initially on the agenda was the enactment of an override clause in the draft law to prevent the High Court of Justice from disqualifying it, but now the prime minister has announced that there will be no override clause.
Flag of the Torah Chairman MK Moshe Gafni during the coalition negotiations: "Without the Override Clause, no government will be formed" (Archive)
Another option that has already been on the coalition's table in the past is to enact a Basic Law on Torah Study. Such a law would establish that Torah study is a supreme value in the State of Israel with constitutional status, and thus will constitute a counterweight to the claim of violation of equality in the text of the Recruitment Law, a right that, as stated, is derived by the court from the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty.
However, the Likud and other parties in the coalition believe that if a draft law is passed that is agreed upon by the defense establishment alongside Galant's service prestige law, which will provide significant benefits to those who serve, the likelihood that the High Court of Justice will strike down the law will decrease. It is not certain that this kit will satisfy Goldknopf and Gaffney. It is estimated that a specific override clause will be enacted on the draft law, but not a sweeping override clause, and the issue is still under discussion.
In any case, the assessment regarding recruitment will be received during the summer recess before the winter conference.
The goal: reducing the cause of reasonableness until Tisha B'Av
Meanwhile, tomorrow (Monday), the second week of deliberations will begin in the Constitutional Committee on reducing the grounds of reasonableness and canceling its validity on decisions made by government, ministers and mayors.
The timetable of reasonableness legislation that the coalition aspires to, provided that there are no changes:
Next Monday (July 10) - First reading vote in the Knesset plenum
Beginning of the week of Tisha B'Av (23.7) - Beginning of votes on second and third readings
The coalition's goal is to conclude the legislative process that week. Recall that the summer conference is expected to end on July 30.
Dr. Gil Limon, Deputy Attorney General, warns against reducing the cause of reasonableness // Knesset Channel
Meanwhile, the coalition leaders announced that even after the legislation, the grounds for reasonableness would continue to apply to decisions made by heads of local authorities, and that it would be canceled only in relation to decisions made by ministers, government and prime ministers.
The coalition tried to market this as a "softening" of the proposal, but in practice they had no intention of applying the elimination of the reasonableness grounds to local authorities, and they agreed to waive it already in the negotiations at the president's residence.
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