Israel Weekly News Roundup, Feb. 10 2023

5 Things you need to know

Anat Saragusti

Hamutal Gouri

, and

Ian Joseph

Feb 10, 2023

Israel Sends Rescue Team to Turkey and Syria After Two Severe Earthquakes: Israeli emergency missions were sent to Turkey to help find and rescue survivors from the recent deadly earthquakes. Israeli rescue teams with rescue experts, medical personnel and caregivers arrived as soon as they could. Israeli President Herzog spoke to Turkish President, Erdogan, and offered help from Israel. The offer was embraced by the Turks.
Israel also offered humanitarian aid to Syria. Israel and Syria don’t have diplomatic relations and the two countries have maintained a hostile ceasefire in the last decades. Nevertheless, Israel was asked by Russia, who already have geo-political control in Syria, to provide medical and humanitarian support to Syria. Israel was willing to accept Syrian citizens who were injured. On the other hand Syria expressed a negative response to the Israeli offer of help. It is possible that help is being provided by Israel anonymously under the radar.
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Growing Tension in the West Bank With the Palestinians Due to Intensive Military Actions: In the last few weeks, the Israeli army intensified its action against what are defined as terrorist groups in the northern West Bank. Israeli special army units operate daily in the area. This has resulted in growing tension, and increased casualties. The PA (Palestinian Authorities) have already announced that they are cutting off all security coordination with Israel, and that also contributed to the growing tension. Israeli intelligence and senior army officers warn that the tension may grow as we come closer to the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is expected to start on March 22.
The tension may increase even more, since the new government is taking steps in favor of the Jewish settlers, which will be seen as intended escalation.
The head of the CIA, Bill Burns, warned a few days ago that a third Intifada (uprising) may result, which could lead to violence and thousands of casualties.
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The New Legislation Which Will Dramatically Change The Nature of the Regime and the Checks and Balances Between The Government, Legislative Agency (Knesset) and the Rule of Law (Supreme Court) Is Almost Ready for a First Vote: The legislative committee is about to finish drafting the new law, and intends to present it to the Knesset assembly on Monday for first vote out of three needed to pass new legislation. This is the first stage in what is described as a legal revolution. According to the new law, the governing coalition will have full control over nominating justices for the supreme court. It also means that the supreme court will have no say on basic laws that were passed in the Knesset by the coalition. That means that there is no rule of law any more, and that the governing coalition can do as they wish, with no checks and balances. Tens of thousands of people continue to participate in many demonstrations all over the country, to protest against the legal revolution that may turn democratic Israeli into a dictatorship. The protest calls for a general strike on Monday, when the legislation will come to a vote in the Knesset assembly. After the first vote the legislation will be sent back to the committee that will prepare it for second and third votes. This may take very little time. Among other things, the immediate fear is that PM Netanyahu will be able to nominate the justices that will later sit on his appeal in the Supreme Court, when his trial for corruption will be discussed there. The Legal Advisor to the government has already ruled that there is a direct conflict of interest, and that PM Netanyahu should not be involved in any legislation that changes the way justices are nominated.
In a fiery, unprecedented speech, Esther Hayut, the president of the Supreme Court denounced the proposed changes. In her speech, delivered on January 12, she declared that the changes would fatally undermine judicial independence, give the coalition the ability to pass any legislation, even those that violate basic human rights and freedoms, and deny the courts the tools needed to serve as a check on executive power.
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JP Morgan and Leading Economists Warn Against the Proposed Judicial Reform: criticism among prominent financial institutions, economists and academics regarding the government’s judicial reform continues to grow. An internal memo by US banking giant JP Morgan, warns of growing risk to investing in Israel in light of the proposed overhaul of the judicial system and ‘geopolitical hostilities’. The internal memo was released last Friday, only days after Prime Minister Netanyahu pointed to both JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs as evidence that the proposed overhaul plan is not chasing away potential investors. The JPMorgan memo had a ripple effect; HSBC, a leading European bank also warned against the impact of the proposed judicial overhaul on Israel’s economy.
Also, 240 leading academics and economists from Israel and around the world published an open letter, warning against the ramifications of the proposed judicial overhaul of Israel’s democratic institutions and security, “in the current international context”.
Another world-renowned economist, French Nobel Prize laurate Jean Tirole, also spoke out against the judicial reform and the threat it presents to democracy. While Tirole could not sign the open letter, he did ask France’s President Emmanuel Macron to bring up the matter at his meeting with PM Netanyahu in Paris last week.
The media reported that Macron told Netanyahu that should his government move forward with its plans to radically change the judicial system, “Paris should conclude that Israel has moved away from a common conception of democracy.”
Brutal Rape of Woman in Front of Her Children Causes Public Uproar: a Bedouin man allegedly sexually assaulted a woman in her home at the southern city of Gedera, in the presence of her children. The attacker and several of his family members were arrested, based on forensics including DNA samples – found at the crime scene.
The violent crime shook the city, and residents demonstrated demanding security and safety in their homes. The police detained four Jewish men, suspected of planning a retaliatory attack on Arab construction workers in Gedera. They were released under restrictive terms and prohibited from entering the city where the crime took place.
Right wing member of Knesset Limor Son Har-Melech (Jewish Prowess) announced that she will propose a bill to double the sentence of those committing nationalistically motivated sex crimes intended “to put an end to nationalistic terrorism and ensure that those sub-humans will rot for many years behind bars."