BICOM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the shelving of a bill that would require candidates of the Supreme Court to face a confirmation hearing in front of a Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. Netanyahu spoke with the drafter of the bill MK Zeev Elkin (Likud) and Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman and called for the efforts to pass the bill to stop.

Netanyahu said that the bill was against the country’s status quo and is not keeping within the coalition’s guidelines. “The independence of the judiciary is above everything. I view as paramount the separation of powers and the rule of law,” Netanyahu said. According to a Channel 2 news report last night, Netanyahu’s decision was influenced by Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein who said that the law went too far and upset the balance of power between government and the judicial system.

The bill would have required candidates for Supreme Court justice or for president of the Supreme Court to appear before a public hearing of the Knesset Constitution Committee, which would have had the right to veto their candidacies.