Israel may pursue some judicial reforms by August

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government could pass part of its contested judicial overhaul by August if compromise talks with the
opposition fail, a senior lawmaker in the ruling religious-nationalist coalition said on Monday.
The proposed reforms, which would curb some Supreme Court powers and increase government sway over appointments to the bench, have set off unprecedented protests in Israel and Western worries for the independence of Israel’s judiciary.
Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges that he denies, said the overhaul aims to balance out branches of government and redress court overreach. But he put the legislation on hold in late March to enable negotiations with opposition parties.
“If they (opposition) don’t want to reach agreement, we will, in my opinion, have to move ahead with some of the reforms,” Simcha Rothman, a coalition lawmaker who heads a key review committee in the Knesset, told Channel 12 TV when asked about plans for the parliamentary session that ends on July 30.