Israeli opposition MK bashes Rothman's 'chutzpah' over judicial reform bill

Labor MK Gilad Kariv criticized Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Chairman MK Simcha Rothman for his absence from the committee preparatory discussions for the judicial reform bill on reasonableness on Tuesday.

While Rothman was abroad on an important meeting on combating antisemitism in Brussels, Kariv said that it was insolent to submit the bill and not be present for its debates before its first reading in the coming days.

"I don't understand how the chairman puts his private bill on our table while bypassing the regulations as a committee bill, so as not to go through a pre-reading, and in his chutzpah is not here," said Kariv. "To enhance his chutzpah he plans to bring it to a vote as early as next week." 

The bill submitted by Rothman on the reasonableness standard would prevent courts from engaging in judicial review of administrative decisions by elected officials by deeming them beyond the scope of a reasonable authority's actions. Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovitch warned that the law would free elected officials from restrictions such as considering the arbitrary methods in which they implemented policies. 

Israel Democracy Institute fellow Dr. Guy Lurie warned that more decisions could be moved from officials under reasonableness standard scrutiny up the chain of command to protect the administrative action from scrutiny. He said that these elected officials would no longer have an obligation to act reasonably, and while there were arguments that another common law principle could replace reasonableness it wasn't a certainty or the available options were too difficult to prove in court. Lurie warned that the result would be less protections for individuals.

Kohelet attorney Aharon Gerber said that abolishing the reasonableness standard did not remove judicial review of administrative action, and there were indeed other grounds to make appeals. The problem with reasonableness was that it was a very subjective principle that allowed anything deemed unfavorable by certain actors to become illegal.

Attorney Eduardo Wasser highlighted a case in which the state ordered children in the Gaza periphery to go to a school where there was insufficient protection from rockets and mortars. Wasser related how he had submitted a petition on the matter, and the High Court ruled that it wasn't reasonable to put children's parents in a dilemma of choosing between education and protection. Other principles would have not allowed for a ruling to push the government to secure the school.

Acting committee chairman Yitzhak Pindrus said that the Gaza school case was an important matter that for him was foremost in his mind in discussions of reasonableness, but unfortunately, the standard had been used in less suitable cases.

Likud MK Moshe Saada said that reasonableness is a complex issue, but decried those that engaged in rioting. The tire fires and protests in front of Justice Minister Yariv Levin's residence took up much of the conversation, with an uproar over Kariv saying that he shouldn't be shocked about such demonstrations. 

"Good morning, it's called democracy," said Kariv.