What Israel may face after Supreme Court law change.

                               Civil unrest, legal appeals and military disobedience !

Israel’s parliament on Monday passed a controversial law stripping the Supreme Court of its power to declare government decisions unreasonable, the first bill in a wide-ranging judicial overhaul that analysts say is likely to deepen the crisis the country is facing.

The bill amended an Israeli Basic Law governing the judiciary by taking away the court’s power to veto government decisions under the legal doctrine of “reasonableness.” Millions opposed the change, according to opinion polls, which critics said would erode the independence of the courts and harm Israel’s democracy.

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed the law despite months of protest and heavy pressure from Israel’s closest ally, the United States. The bill passed by a vote of 64-0. All members of the governing coalition voted in favor, while all opposition lawmakers walked out of the chamber in protest as the vote was taking place.

Like the British system of government, Israel doesn’t have a written constitution. Instead, it relies on 13 Basic Laws, as well as court ruling precedents that could one day become a constitution. That leaves the Supreme Court as the only check on the executive and legislative branches of government, a power that Monday’s vote has curtailed.

Israel is in a unique situation because we do not have special procedures for constitutional amendments,” Yohanan Plesner, President of the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem, told CNN. “Because we don’t have a constitution, one of the things we missed…are special procedures for Basic Laws.”

Plesner notes that this makes Israel’s legal system “particularly vulnerable to constitutional abuse,” as with a simple majority one can make “far-reaching constitutional changes” or even declare an amendment constitutional when it is not.

This “extra flexibility,” he said, has traditionally created more room for “court intervention and court interpretation.”

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