On Iran, The BBC reports that four young men have been executed in connection with the nationwide protests that erupted four months ago, while 18 other people have been sentenced to death. Human rights groups have said they were convicted after grossly unfair sham trials. Mohammed Mehdi Karami was hanged on 7^th January, just 65 days after his arrest. Sources told BBC Persian that he had less than 15 minutes to defend himself in court.

The Economist reports on judicial reform: “Mr Levin is determined to curb the powers of the country’s robustly independent Supreme Court. The new minister, a lawyer and veteran critic of the institution, wants to introduce an ‘override clause’ which would allow a simple majority in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to pass legislation deemed unconstitutional by the court. Under his proposals the court would no longer be able to nullify government decisions on the ground of reasonableness.”

The Guardian reports that Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian boy near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, where the army said they opened fire after people threw molotov cocktails. Omar Khmour, 14, was shot in the head early on Monday in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the southern West Bank and “succumbed to his wounds”, the Palestinian ministry said.

Reuters reports that Israeli airline El Al plans to continue expanding in the tourism business through merger and acquisition deals and will also increase its flights to North America, CEO Dina Ben-Tal Ganancia said on Tuesday in Dublin. The airline also wants to make a quick decision on the purchase of new narrow body planes this year, Ganancia said while speaking on a panel at the Airline Economics conference.

There is wide Israeli media coverage of the keenly anticipated and soon expected decision of the Supreme Court on Shas leader Aryeh Deri’s suitability to serve as a minister, and speculation on Deri’s and Netanyahu’s likely responses should the court rule against him. Haaretz quotes sources indicating that despite his defiant promise not to resign during a Shas meeting on Sunday, Deri is privately considering this course. Should Deri fail to do so, the paper suggests, Netanyahu will be forced to fire Deri and then hope to reappoint him once legislation is passed removing the court’s decision to use the test of “reasonableness” to strike down Knesset decisions- the legal logic from which barring Deri would stem. Meanwhile, there continues to be reaction to Shas MK Avraham Bezalel’s remarks on the Knesset channel that were the court to disqualify Deri they would be “shooting themselves in the head”.

Israel Hayom cites Likud figures refuting the notion that Netanyahu might refuse to fire Deri in the event of an adverse court decision. “If the High Court of Justice forces Netanyahu to fire Deri, he will comply with the High Court of Justice ruling,” the source says, “but everyone will have to know that the court forced the prime minister, against his will, to fire a minister.” The Likud figure goes on to describe such a scenario as an “opportunity to show anyone who still thinks that Justice Minister Levin’s corrections aren’t necessary why they’re wrong. If there is anyone in our public who thinks that Levin has gone too far, along will come the ruling instructing the prime minister to fire a minister and will convince them otherwise.” However, Haaretz quotes Shas MK, and Israeli welfare minister, Yaakov Margi seeming to put pressure on Netanyahu to uphold Deri’s appointment in the here and now. It quotes Margi as saying that without Deri, Netanyahu “knows there will be no government.”

On the related issue of judicial reform, Maariv reports that Chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, and Religious Zionism MK, Simcha Rothman has today presented amendments to Justice Minister Levin’s proposals. The amendments adapt the reforms of the original proposals in some areas, including: that the court be able annul Knesset decisions with absolute majority, rather than the 80% called for be Levin; that instead of the judicial appointments committee containing 11 members, of which 7 will be politicians, it would contain 9 members, of which 5 would be politicians.

Maariv discusses the opposition’s tactic of filibustering during sittings of the Knesset on Mondays, in an effort to stymie committee work and delay implementation of the government’s legislative agenda. By keeping coalition members up through the night, the opposition succeeded in delaying yesterday’s committee meetings. Ynet, meanwhile, details yesterday’s Knesset clash between Levin and leader of the opposition Yair Lapid. Lapid’s Yesh Atid and other allies tabled a vote of no confidence in the government over its plans for judicial reform. The vote was inevitably lost but allowed for Lapid to launch further criticisms of the reforms. Levin countered by insisting that “I want to hear the criticism, personally or in the committee or wherever you want, but the attempts to intimidate and paint it in colours that have nothing to do with reality, this way you will have no effect on the change.”

Ynet also quotes the intervention of former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a previous advocate for judicial reform, who said: “I believe that certain changes are required in the judicial system, which for years assumed excessive powers and blocked any attempt at correction, but you do not correct one historical distortion with another distortion… The full current proposal, as it currently stands, is dangerous. It will damage the foundations of the State of Israel, its economy and its citizens. We must not go to the opposite extreme, that is, the loss of checks and balances, neutering the judicial system and transferring the appointment of all Israeli judges to the prime minister alone, as is proposed.”

Maariv covers yesterday’s incident at the Temple Mount, during which Jordanian ambassador to Israel, Ghassan Al-Majali, on a surprise visit, refused an Israeli policeman’s request to wait while another officer arrived to authorise his entry. Al-Majali, who had arrived in the company of Waqf representatives, instead left the site in protest, before later returning and completing his tour. Israel’s ambassador in Amman was then summoned to the Jordanian Foreign Ministry and presented with a letter protesting “measures aimed at unacceptable interference in the affairs of Al-Aqsa Mosque.” In a statement, the Israeli Police explained that the officer had not recognised the ambassador and simply followed correct procedure in requesting his patience in awaiting the senior officer’s authorisation, which was then forthcoming. Channel 12 News noted that the Jordanian delegation did not follow agreed protocol of sharing their intended visit in advance. It speculated that the event was a deliberate provocation by the Jordanians, designed to create a mini crisis and distract Jordanians’ attention away from the domestic protests over the increased price of fuel.

Israel Hayom discusses new security minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s decision to refuse permission for Police Commissioner Insp. Gen. Yaakov Shabtai to attend a meeting of the State Audit Committee. Committee chair Mickey Levy, a Yesh Atid MK, had requested Shabtai’s attendance for the discussion of the state comptroller’s report into policing and law enforcement in the mixed cities during Operation Guardian of the Walls.

Ynet covers Ukrainian envoy to Israel Yevhen Korniichuk’s latest call for Israel to provide defensive weapons to Ukraine for use in its war with Russia. Having just returned from a visit home, Korniichuk said “We are receiving military aid from all of our partners who call themselves democratic states… Israel is not part of that. We appreciate the humanitarian aid we receive from Israel, but as I said before, we cannot win the war with bandages and antibiotics. If Israel is not able to supply us defence weaponry – it will make it difficult for us to protect human lives.” In a related story, Ynet reveals that of the more than a million 155-millimeter shells the US has previously delivered or promised the Ukrainians, over half have come, or will come, from its stockpiles based in Israel and South Korea. Such US shells have been based in Israel since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and their transfer to Ukraine was approved by the Bennett-Lapid government.