Gantz met with Deri several times in an attempt to reach an understanding between the coalition and the opposition. Former Chief Justice Aharon Barak is also involved.
Benny Gantz and Aryeh DeriHadas Parush/Flash 90
The chairman of the National Unity Party, MK Benny Gantz, recently met several times with Shas chairman Aryeh Deri in an attempt to reach an understanding between the coalition and the opposition regarding the judicial reform, Kan 11 News reported on Monday.
According to the report, the coalition hopes that a compromise on the issue of reasonability, by which the court can strike down laws and ministerial actions on the basis of their being arbitrary or “unreasonable”, will pave the way for Deri to return to the government. Legal officials, however, are casting a high doubt on whether the move will indeed allow Deri to return.
The report also said that, in addition, Aharon Barak, the former President of the Supreme Court, is pushing to reach a compromise and has spoken with senior political officials on the matter.
Barak has been one of the vocal opponents of the government’s proposed judicial reform. Reports last month indicated that he had met several times with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer for discussions regarding the judicial reform.
Barak, who served as Supreme Court President between 1995 and 2006, first coined the term “Constitutional Revolution”.
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Barak’s approach, which was adopted by the Supreme Court and widely criticized over the years, says that the Constitutional Revolution brought values such as the Right to Equality, Freedom of Employment and Freedom of Speech to a position of normative supremacy, and thereby granted the courts (not just the Supreme Court) the ability to strike down legislation which is inconsistent with the rights embodied in the Basic Laws.
Consequently, Barak held that the State of Israel has been transformed from a parliamentary democracy to a constitutional parliamentary democracy, in that its Basic Laws were to be interpreted as its constitution.
Even A. Barak gets IT!
Dershowitz fully supports the need for reform and compromise.
Taking “advice” from Aharon Barak is like taking advice, not from the Devil’s Advocare but from the Devil himself. Ganz knows this. It seems he wants permission to agree with the coalition on some points. The odds are very heavily against Barak consenting to ANY agreement.