Demonstrations of support for the further advancement of the legal reform are continuing with today's rally across from President Herzog's residence in Jerusalem. Protesters are trying to make their voices heard and remind Herzog that the Right won a conclusive victory in last year's Knesset elections well before renewed talks on the President's revised outline for the proposed law.
Prior to the demonstration, organizers MK Avichai Boaron and Berale Crombie, said that: "the last time an outline was presented, the president clearly took sides, and we are afraid that this time, he will again use his public image and take advantage of the sincerity of the right-wing sector which continues pushing for dialogue and wants to avoid a civil war at any price. We are afraid he will propose another plan that caters to the Left."
"Decisions in a democratic society cannot be made in the President's House by a limited forum rather than in the Knesset - the national House of Representatives, when the public gave the Right 64 seats just six months ago and clearly indicated it wanted a change in the judicial system. As long as the democratic system has not changed - decisions must be made by a majority coalition and not in collaboration with the opposition, with all due respect to it," they pointed out.
"Besides the need for broad agreement to calm the atmosphere, we'd like to remind you that in a democratic society an elected government receives the mandate to make decisions and create policies. The method proposed by certain people, including the President - of siding with the opposition instead of listening to the voice of the people - is a slap in the face to Israeli democracy," said the two.
Demonstrators called on the public to demand that the President respect the people's choices at the ballot box. "We voted to implement a policy. You can't just throw away those votes as if they never existed and have the President make the final call on policy decisions which will determine the course this country takes in coming years."
All the right-wing organizations that have united in recent weeks for a joint protest movement voiced their support for today's demonstration.
Last month, Herzog presented a watered-down version of the proposed legal reform which matched the Left's wishes much more than the Right's..
While the appended proposal would prevent the Supreme Court from striking down ministerial appointments based on the 'reasonabileness standard' the way the court struck down the appointment of Shas chairman Aryeh Deri in January, the Override Clause, which would allow the Knesset to re-pass legislation struck down by the Supreme Court was completely missing from Herzog's plan.
Previous compromise proposals had suggested a version of the Override Clause which would require a super-majority of MKs instead of a bare majority of 61.