Israeli opposition leader Jair Lapid has expressed his support for the Supreme Court after it overturned a key element of the government’s controversial judicial reform.
“The Supreme Court’s decision closes a difficult year of strife that has torn us apart from within and led to the worst catastrophe in our history,” Lapid wrote on Monday on the social media platform X.
“We give the Supreme Court our full backing” after it fulfilled its mission to protect the citizens of Israel, Lapid said.
Lapid, who leads the centrist Future Party, said that if the Israeli government restarted the dispute over the Supreme Court, it would show that they have “learned nothing from October 7 and from 87 days of fighting for our home.”
Months of fierce disputes and nationwide demonstrations over the judicial reform were seen by many government critics as one reason why Israel was so surprised by the devastating attack led by Hamas on October 7.
In a dramatic decision earlier on Monday, the judges in Jerusalem had overturned a core element of the controversial judicial reform that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government had been pushing ahead with for a year despite mass protests.
The Supreme Court ruled that the amendment to the Basic Law, passed in parliament in July, had removed the possibility for the court to take action against “inappropriate” decisions by the government, the prime minister or individual ministers.
Critics had warned that this could encourage corruption and the arbitrary appointment of important posts.