Most Israelis support Herzog's judicial reform outline - poll

A Maariv survey found that 42% of respondents support the judicial reform outline proposed by President Isaac Herzog, 34% say they oppose it, and 24% have no opinion on the issue.

Among supporters of the current government coalition, 65% oppose the proposal. Among ultra-Orthodox respondents, 82% of United Torah Judaism voters oppose it while 72% of ultra-Orthodox parties, in general, oppose it.

However, 78% of supporters of the National Unity Party and 77% of Yesh Atid voters said they support the proposal. The poll does not state how many coalition supporters support the Herzog outline.

The survey suggests, however, that the election prospects of the opposition parties have weakened slightly since previous polls. Yesh Atid, which reached 27 mandates in a January 26 poll, received only 24 in the latest survey.

The results also suggest the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) Party would win only five seats in an election today.

Herzog proposed the outline as a compromise on controversial changes to the judicial system proposed by the governing coalition, which have led to large protests.

Critics of the proposed judicial reforms say the proposals, which would essentially strip the Supreme Court of its ability to conduct judicial review, threaten the country’s democratic nature.

Proponents of the reforms say the changes are needed to reign in an overpowered judicial branch.

The survey was conducted by Dr. Menachem Lazar from March 15-16 on a representative sample of the Israeli population aged 18 and older made up of 508 respondents on the questionnaire website Panel4All. The maximum sampling error is 4.3%.