Knesset races to pass bill eliminating ‘reasonableness’ standard before summer recess

Israelis are bracing for a turbulent week of protests and potential strike action as the country’s governing coalition races to pass a key component of its wide-ranging judicial overhaul before the parliamentary summer recess.

The Knesset’s constitution, justice and law committee on Monday discussed sending a bill eliminating the “reasonableness” standard that allows the supreme court to overrule government decisions back to the plenum for its second reading.

Israeli prime minister fitted with monitoring device after being kept overnight with dehydration

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been discharged from hospital after heart monitoring tests showed no irregularities during an overnight admission for dehydration.

Netanyahu, 73, was taken to hospital near his private residence in the coastal town of Caesarea on Saturday afternoon after complaining of dizziness and kept overnight for observation, his office said.

Israeli prime minister, 73, thought to be suffering from dehydration and is undergoing medical tests in hospital near Tel Aviv

Benjamin Netanyahu has said he “feels very good” after being taken to a Tel Aviv hospital for what doctors determined was likely to be dehydration.

Israel’s prime minister issued a video statement hours after he was hospitalised. In the statement, Netanyahu said he had been out in the sun on Friday without a hat and without water. “Not a good idea,” he said.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition wins first of three votes required for controversial changes to become law

Tens of thousands of Israeli demonstrators have blocked motorways across the country and access to Tel Aviv’s airport as part of a “day of disruption” in protest at the government’s renewed push to advance legislation overhauling the judiciary.

In the first of three readings on Monday night, Israel’s parliament – in which the governing coalition headed by the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, holds 64 of 120 seats – voted in favour of a bill scrapping the “reasonableness” standard that allows the supreme court to overrule government decisions.

Israeli PM says he has thrown out controversial measure to allow parliament to override supreme court decisions

A surprise announcement from Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that one of the most controversial elements of his government’s proposed judicial overhaul will be dropped, has angered his coalition partners and failed to placate protesters opposed to the plans.

“The idea of an override clause, where the parliament, the Knesset, can override the decisions of the supreme court with a simple majority, I said, I threw that out … It’s out,” Netanyahu said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Thursday.

Political chaos weakens prime minister as he pursues controversial changes

A rebellion by members of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s, government in an important vote related to controversial judicial changes has dealt the longtime leader a political setback, bringing divisions in his coalition to the fore and scuppering compromise talks with the opposition.

The Knesset was expected on Wednesday to elect two political representatives to Israel’s nine-member judicial selection committee, one of the key issues in the six-month-old debate over the nature of Israeli democracy, and a vote widely viewed as a referendum on the future of the overhaul.

Fresh protests expected against proposals as opposition members threaten to quit compromise talks

A key vote in Israel’s Knesset related to the government’s bitterly contested judicial overhaul is set to be delayed at the behest of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a move that could torpedo negotiations with the opposition and galvanise the anti-legislation protest movement.

Parliamentarians were due on Wednesday to elect two political representatives to the country’s nine-member judicial selection committee, the composition of which is one of the most important issues in the now six-month-old political crisis.

Political rivals have denounced the national guard plans as creating a personal ‘militia’ for extremist minister

After a dramatic day of wildcat strikes that shut down much of the country last month, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, finally announced that his government’s controversial plans to overhaul the judiciary would be suspended until the Knesset’s summer session.

The Israeli leader struggled for hours to reach a compromise with the recalcitrant far-right elements of his coalition pushing for the judicial changes. But that evening, the extremist anti-Arab Jewish Power party, led by the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said it had agreed to back the pause in exchange for a promise to create the minister’s long sought-after “national guard”.