Israel parliament to vote on controversial judicial overhaul
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00:00 Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a four-month delay in order to allow talks on some of the proposals.
00:04 Israel's parliament will now be going ahead with a vote on a bill that could limit the
00:09 power of courts later Monday.
00:11 The controversial reforms, of course, have sparked one of the country's biggest ever
00:15 protest movements since the month of January.
00:17 For more on this, we're going to cross now to our Jerusalem correspondent, Iris Mackler.
00:21 Hi there, Iris.
00:22 So what exactly is parliament voting on Monday night?
00:28 Parliament is voting on limiting the court's ability to override, oversee what the government
00:35 does but what other public officials do on the grounds that it's reasonable.
00:39 This is the first reading of the first prong of the reforms, so a first reading speech
00:45 on the reasonableness test and what it would allow parliament to do.
00:50 For example, the prime minister could appoint his son as treasurer if the government let
00:56 him.
00:57 He couldn't intervene because it was unreasonable.
00:59 The government could fire the attorney general or they could bring back a politician that
01:04 they wanted to bring back who has a history of corruption.
01:08 And those last two, the attorney general and the political ally, are what they are planning
01:13 to do, exactly those two things.
01:15 And we know that because they have said so.
01:17 We've heard politicians on the right explaining that that's what they're going to do.
01:21 This is also the most drastic version of this particular bill that's going ahead now, exactly
01:27 as it was at the beginning.
01:29 So you can see why it's so controversial and why there have been such great protests the
01:33 past 48 hours leading up to it.
01:35 So Iris, how does this particular measure fit into the larger judicial overhaul?
01:42 What we have heard from opponents, but now also from members of parliament, is that they
01:47 made a mistake the first time round and that they tried to do too much.
01:51 Now they're going to do it bit by bit.
01:53 That's the plan.
01:54 So this is the first bit, a very drastic version.
01:57 The man who's shepherding it through the parliament, Simcha Rotman is his name, he said that tomorrow
02:02 morning after it's passed today, he's preparing the second and third reading speeches.
02:07 So that will go through before this parliamentary session ends, that is in a couple of weeks'
02:11 time.
02:12 There'll be other bills as well.
02:13 They're going for it hell for leather, you'd have to say.
02:16 And that's why the protest movement says that tomorrow is going to be a day of disruption,
02:20 as they call it, if this does pass tonight.
02:23 And all indications are that it will pass tonight.