The Israeli Minister of Transport: The government will resume work on judicial amendments in mid-May
The Israeli Minister of Transport, Miri Regev, stated that the government will resume work on the draft judicial amendments - which has been met with continuous opposition for the 12th week in a row in the Israeli street - when the winter session of the Knesset opens in mid-May.
Regev said - in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published on Sunday - "Netanyahu suspended the amendments to open the door to negotiations. If this does not happen, we will bring it up again before the Knesset."
She added, "The draft amendments have only been suspended, and there is a very clear date for the next session, immediately after Independence Day (May 14). We are continuing to legislate."
The Israeli official - who is from the Likud party - confirmed that if the two parties (the government and the opposition) do not reach agreements, "we will return to the broad lines that were voted on in the first reading, and pass them to the second and third readings."
She added that "a negotiating team from the Likud has already been appointed to deal with the other side and see if there is any willingness for reasonable agreements that will meet the expectations of the voters who chose them for this very purpose."
Regev stated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the decision to suspend the judicial amendments in order to preserve the unity of the people, but she does not support delaying the legislation, saying, "I think we should have continued at least with the Judicial Appointments Committee bill, and submitted it to the second and third readings."
It is noteworthy that on March 27, Netanyahu had temporarily frozen his controversial plan to amend the judiciary, and said - in a televised speech - "I decided to suspend the Knesset's vote on judicial reform legislation to reach a broad agreement out of national responsibility and the desire to prevent the division of the nation."
Tens of thousands of Israelis have been demonstrating for 12 weeks against the judicial "reform" plan supported by the Israeli government, which includes amendments that limit the powers of the Supreme Court (the highest judicial authority) and give the government the power to appoint judges.
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