Posted on 07/24/23
| News Source: JPost
The passing of the reasonableness standard bill on Monday was met with a combination of celebration from the government.
"We are now going out to a long recess now, and I am starting it knowing that we passed an important law, but without joy and with a real desire to bring together all parts of the people," said Justice Minister Yariv Levin in the plenum after the bill passed.
While Levin's speech combined celebration with an acknowledgment of the domestic crisis in the country, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who had tried to help reach a last-minute compromise before the vote, was entirely celebratory.
"After hard work and years-long effort, we are beginning to repair the judicial system and return the balance between the authorities."
Minister Bezalel Smotrich
"After hard work and years-long effort, we are beginning to repair the judicial system and return the balance between the authorities which was broken 30 years ago by Aharon Barak," he tweeted after the bill passed. "Thank you to the prime minister, coalition members, the justice minister, and to my partner and colleague Simcha Rothman. Together, we will continue to repair responsibly."
"The state of Israel will be a little more democratic from today," said National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. "The law we passed today is important for democracy, but this is only the beginning. For a more Jewish and more democratic State of Israel, we have to pass the rest of the reform at the top of which is the Judicial Selection Committee makeup and changing the authority of attorney-generals."
After the vote, opposition leader Yair Lapid addressed the press.
"I look at the coalition celebrating and ask, what are they celebrating?" he said. "The fact that you're breaking apart the Jewish state we have? The fact that people who served together in reserve service for 30 years are canceling their annual meeting because they know it will end badly?
"Today, we saw an unprecedented show of weakness by Netanyahu. There is no prime minister in Israel. Netanyahu has become a puppet on a string of messianic extremists.