(Updates with foreign reaction to paragraph 4)
Jerusalem, February 21. Israel on Tuesday rejected a call by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, to suspend approval of a controversial judicial reform, which has polarized the country and is seen by opponents as a hindrance to justice.
“The UN Human Rights Council is a biased and ineffective body,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
“Instead of condemning the repeated human rights violations in Iran, Syria, the Palestinian Authority and many other parts of the world, some members of the council decided today to criticize the state of Israel for deciding to carry out a reform that only strengthens democracy in Israel. This is absurd,” he added.
Por su parte, el ministro de Exteriores, Eli Cohen, dijo: “No aceptaremos sermones morales de aquellos que ignoran las violaciones flagrantes de los derechos humanos en Siria, Irán, la Autoridad Palestina y Gaza, y atacan a Israel, la única democracia en Middle East”.
On Monday, amid massive protests, the Israeli parliament partially approved two bills included in the judicial reform promoted by the right-wing executive Netanyahu with his far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish partners.
One seeks to change the composition of the judicial selection committee so that the government takes control of the body, and the other seeks to restrict the Supreme Court’s ability to review and change laws. This would deprive this highest judicial body from exercising the current jurisdictional control or from repealing the fundamental laws, which have constitutional value in the country.
Fearing that the reform would “significantly undermine the ability of the judiciary to assert individual rights and uphold the rule of law,” Turk called on Israel to suspend the initiative.
“Given the level of concern it has caused among politicians and civil society, I call on the Israeli government to put the proposed legislative changes on hold and open them up to broader debate and reflection,” he said. he declared.
For his part, Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan also reacted to Turk’s appeal, arguing that “it has no legal or moral validity and has no right to s ‘interfering in the internal affairs of Israel’.
Meanwhile, Israeli President Isaac Herzog again called on Tuesday to submit the initiative to dialogue and consensus with the opposition.
According to critics and opponents, the reform would undermine the independence of the judiciary and end the separation of powers in Israel, jeopardizing the formal democratic foundations of the state.
Another of the controversial measures the current government is seeking to adopt as part of the reform is the so-called ‘cancellation clause’, which would allow a simple majority of MPs in parliament to overrule Supreme Court rulings. .
This is the second confrontation between Israel and the UN in less than 24 hours.
On Monday, Netanyahu condemned a statement issued by the UN Security Council that expressed his “deep concern” over the Israeli government’s recent announcement to legalize nine Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and build some 10,000 homes in the Palestinian territory. . ECE
yo/mah