Israel’s parliament on Thursday passed a law expanding the power of politicians over judge appointments in defiance of a years-long protest movement against the judicial reforms pushed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.The approval came with Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing in Israeli history, locked in a standoff with the supreme court after the premier began proceedings to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and announced the sacking of Ronen Bar, head of the internal security agency.Critics said the new law was a “catastrophe” and a “nail in the coffin of Israeli democracy,” while the opposition swiftly filed a petition with the supreme court challenging the law.The legislation was approved by a vote of 67 in favour and one against, with the opposition boycotting the early-morning vote. Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has 120 members.The overall judicial reform package sparked one of the largest protest movements in Israel’s history in 2023 before being overtaken by the war in Gaza.According to Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who sponsored the bill, the measure was intended to “restore balance” between the legislative and judicial branches.In his closing remarks ahead of the vote, Levin slammed the supreme court, saying it had “effectively nullified the Knesset”.”It has taken for itself the authority to cancel laws and even Basic Laws. This is something unheard of in any democracy in the world,” said Levin, the key architect of the judicial changes.Israel lacks a written constitution, but it has a number of Basic Laws which set out things such as human rights and the powers of the parliament.”But our supreme court didn’t stop at trampling the Knesset; it placed itself above the government. It can annul any government action, compel the government to perform any action, cancel any government appointment.”The days of appeasement and silencing are over, never to return,” Levin said.- ‘Catastrophe’ -Currently, judges — including supreme court justices — are selected by a nine-member committee comprising judges, lawmakers, and bar association representatives, under the justice minister’s supervision.Under the new law, which would take effect at the start of the next legislative term, the committee would still have nine members: three supreme court judges, the justice minister and another minister, one coalition lawmaker, one opposition lawmaker, and two public representatives -— one appointed by the majority and the other by the opposition.Yair Lapid, leader of the centre-right Yesh Atid party, announced on X that he had filed an appeal with the supreme court against the law on behalf of several opposition parties, just minutes after the parliamentary vote.”Instead of focusing all efforts on their (Israeli hostages in Gaza) return and healing the divisions within the people, this government is returning to the exact legislation that divided the public before October 7,” Lapid said in his post.”The amendment passed by the Knesset is another nail in the coffin of Israeli democracy,” said Eliad Shraga, head of Israeli NGO the Movement for Quality Government in Israel and one of the petitioners against the law.”This is a calculated attempt to take control of the judicial system and turn it into a tool in the hands of politicians,” he said in a statement.Claude Klein, a public law expert at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, said enactment of the law would be a “catastrophe”.”They want to take real power. Netanyahu thinks that the supreme court is keeping him from running the country his way,” he told AFP.Klein said that over the decades, the top court had expanded its scope of action, in particular by ruling that any legal precedent or law can be reviewed or annuled, a concept to which Levin was “extremely hostile”.- New protests -The government’s judicial reforms package, first unveiled in early 2023, triggered massive weekly street protests that polarised Israeli society.Netanyahu’s detractors warn the multi-pronged package could pave the way for authoritarian rule and be used by the prime minister to quash any possible convictions against him in his ongoing corruption trial, an accusation the premier denies.Rallies have again erupted in key cities and on Wednesday thousands protested against the bill before it was approved in parliament.Netanyahu slammed the opposition in parliament on Wednesday.”Perhaps you could stop putting spanners in the works of the government in the middle of a war. Perhaps you could stop fuelling the sedition, hatred and anarchy in the streets,” he said.

Israel on Thursday kicked off a conference on fighting anti-Semitism, with the attendance of politicians from Europe’s far right driving division within the international Jewish community.Among those invited to the symposium are a member of Hungary’s Fidesz party and France’s National Rally (RN), whose cofounder was known for his anti-Semitic comments.Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar addressed the conference, decrying a “new anti-Semitism” stoked by “a disturbing alliance between the radical progressives on the far-left and Islamist fundamentalism”.”In the name of so-called ‘human rights’, the progressive movement fell captive to those seeking the destruction of the Jewish people,” he said.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is later due to speak, as well as the current RN president Jordan Bardella, capping an unprecedented trip to Israel by a leader of his party.Analysts say the invitation of parties that have themselves been accused of anti-Semitism demonstrates the willingness of Israel’s right to cultivate new relationships with unlikely supporters, amid pressure from traditional allies over the Gaza war.Bardella on Wednesday visited sites where Hamas militants carried out their October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.He first travelled to a memorial marking the site of the Nova music festival, where Hamas fighters killed more than 370 people, including French nationals.”I came here first and foremost because I believe it’s vital for us to never forget what happened on October 7, 2023, here in Israel, what Islamism and the Hamas terrorist movement were capable of,” he said.Since Hamas’s attack on Israel, the RN has sought to present itself as a bulwark against anti-Semitism.The party was cofounded as the National Front by Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died earlier this year, and who was charged and convicted in a French court for downplaying the Holocaust.His daughter, Marine Le Pen, has moved emphatically to distance the movement from her father’s legacy, renaming the party and seeking to make it more broadly electable.When asked about his party’s past during Wednesday’s visit, Bardella responded: “I don’t do politics in the rearview mirror.”- ‘Black and white’ -Thursday’s conference will focus on fighting what rights groups have described as a rising tide of anti-Semitism around the world, a priority for Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history.The guest list for the symposium, organised by right-wing Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, also includes Bardella’s fellow MEP Marion Marechal, who leads another far-right movement and is the niece of Marine Le Pen.Earlier in the week, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, a Kremlin ally, said he was travelling to Israel where he would attend the conference, but it was unclear whether he was in attendance.”The Serbs and the Jews are peoples that others have sought to annihilate,” the president of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated statelet of Republika Srpska said on X. “That is why we stand together.”Bosnia on Thursday issued an international arrest warrant for Dodik, who is accused of flouting the constitution.”The current Israeli government sees the world in black and white,” said Denis Charbit, a political scientist at the Open University of Israel.Some in Israel feel the country is currently isolated, and needs “new friends”, even if it deems them distasteful, he added.Israeli media reported on guests who cancelled their appearances in protest of the far-right politicians’ presence, including Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy.Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and the UK government’s independent adviser on anti-Semitism, John Mann, have also withdrawn.On Wednesday, Bardella visited Netiv Haasara, on Gaza’s northern border, where he met with a Franco-Israeli survivor of October 7 who lost her husband and son in the attacks.During their conversation, Bardella described Israel’s offensive in Gaza a war of “civilisation against barbarism”. “We have always stated with the utmost consistency… that its retaliation and response were legitimate, but that it had to be carried out in accordance with international law,” he said.Bardella rejected the idea of “unconditional support” for Israel, but said he was in favour of close ties with “all nations fighting against Islamic terrorism”.