The Foreign Ministry provided Israeli diplomats with a message sheet designed to answer questions about the legal legislation and the protests against it around the world. Political sources and in the Foreign Service indicate that Israel's diplomatic relations with the countries remain stable, but there are questions due to the broad media coverage of events in Israel and the negative sentiment it entails. In the current situation, the Israeli brand as a democratic state may have been damaged, but not in a way that affects Israeli foreign relations.
Fireworks demonstration in Kaplan
The message page sent to diplomats who requested assistance from the Foreign Ministry to deal with the questions stated, among other things, that "Israel is a strong, stable and vibrant democracy." In recent months, there has been a public debate on balancing the three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The Israeli government is promoting a reform aimed at strengthening the status of the legislative branch, based on the perception that in recent years the balance between the branches has changed and the status of the legislative branch has weakened."
"In recent months, there has been a broad public debate, including discussion in Knesset committees and plenums, in the Israeli media and among the citizens of the country, in the form of demonstrations attended by tens of thousands of Israeli citizens (including protest demonstrations and demonstrations of support). These demonstrations are an example of Israeli democracy. Over the course of several months, a dialogue was held under the auspices of the President of Israel between representatives of the coalition and representatives of the opposition, in order to find broad consensus. On Monday of this week, the Knesset passed its second and third readings of the bill on reducing the cause of reasonableness."
The diplomats were also provided with a legal explanation by the Foreign Ministry's Legal Division regarding the legislation, which stated: "On Monday, the Knesset passed an amendment to Basic Law: Judiciary, which states that the courts will not discuss or issue an order regarding the reasonableness of any decision by the government, the prime minister or any other minister. As part of the reasonableness grounds, the courts had the option of passing judicial review of decisions of administrative authorities in a case where the "duty of reasonableness" was not met.
"The protests are an example of Israeli democracy," Photo: AFP
"The duty of reasonableness is a duty imposed on the administrative authority to give due weight in the circumstances to all the facts and considerations relevant to the decision, and to balance them correctly. The amendment means that the courts, including the Supreme Court, will no longer be able to invalidate decisions or pass judicial review of decisions made by the prime minister, the government, or a government minister, based on the grounds of reasonableness. It should be noted that decisions of the government, the prime minister and other ministers will continue to be subject to judicial review according to other grounds of administrative law, such as equality and absence of discrimination, absence of extraneous considerations, absence of arbitrariness, and more. Shortly after the vote in the Knesset, petitions were filed with the High Court of Justice against the amendment to the Basic Law."
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