MKs, ministers unable to attend US Independence Day event due to Knesset filibuster

A long list of MKs and ministers were unable to attend a US Independence Day party at the US Embassy in Jerusalem due to the coalition and opposition's inability to reach agreements in their weekly negotiations over the opposition's agreement to drop planned filibusters in exchange for the coalition's agreement to remove certain items from the Knesset plenum's agenda.

The opposition offered the coalition a deal, whereby it would cancel a planned filibuster in the Knesset plenum scheduled to last throughout the night, in exchange for, among other provisions, Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman's consent to cancel a scheduled session in his committee over a controversial bill connected to the judicial reforms called the Reasonable Standard bill.

There is no session on this bill scheduled for the Constitution Committee on Wednesday, and therefore canceling Tuesday's session would have postponed the bill's progression until next week.

However, since the negotiations between the coalition and opposition fell through, Rothman announced on Monday evening that there could be votes on the bill already on Tuesday. The bill is currently being prepared in the committee for its first reading on the Knesset floor.

The Reasonableness Standard

The controversial Reasonableness Standard bill aims to cancel the Supreme Court's ability to strike down decisions by the government or specific ministers based on their being "beyond the limits of reasonableness."

The bill's proponents argue that it gives the Supreme Court the amorphic power to set the limits of "reasonableness" based on its own judgment. Its detractors, including the attorney-general, argue that the reasonableness standard is an important tool to fight corrupt appointments and decisions, and that corruption would increase if it is blocked.