What happens next with Israel's Judicial Reform?
What happens next with Israel's Judicial Reform?
A panel discussion yesterday, sponsored by The Forward, in advance of today's Supreme Court hearing
Israel’s Supreme Court is scheduled to sit today—in a full complement of all fifteen judges for the very first time in Israel’s history—to hear arguments about the Knesset’s law doing away with the “reasonability test,” the first of the four planks of judicial reform to pass the parliament.
In advance of today’s hearing, The Forward, with Opinion Editor Laura Adkins moderating, invited Dalia Scheindlin and me to a panel discussion on some of the issues surrounding today’s historic hearing. The recording, along with auto-generated subtitles (which of course have many errors, as they always do), can be watched at the link below.
On September 13, 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas signed a Declaration of Principles, known by most as the Oslo Accords. It was, many thought, a major breakthrough in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Those who belonged to the “peace camp” in Israel were thrilled. It was bound to be the dawn of a new day.
What followed, however, was terror and bloodshed, known by most as the Second Intifada. Since then, most people claim, “Oslo has died.”
Or, perhaps not? To commemorate this anniversary, I spoke with my friend, Gidi Grinstein. Gidi and I met almost thirty-five years ago, when he had just completed his service in the Israeli navy and I was living in Los Angeles. We spoke on the eve of the release of his new book (In)Sights: Thirty Years of Peacemaking in the Olso Process, in which he shares his experiences as the youngest delegate at the Camp David summit in July 2000, and has some surprising things to say not only about Oslo’s past, but about its future, as well.
Our conversation with Gidi will be tomorrow’s podcast, which we will send, as always, in full and with a transcript to paid subscribers; we will also send an excerpt to free subscribers.
With the High Holidays just around the corner, here is the schedule for Israel from the Inside during that period.
During the week of Rosh Hashanah and the Fast of Gedaliah (on Monday, there will be no written column on Monday, September 18th, but we will post our regular Wednesday podcast on September 20.
During the week of Yom Kippur, there will be no written column on Monday, September 25th (which is the day of Yom Kippur), but we will post our regular Wednesday podcast on September 27.
During the week of the holiday of Sukkot (Monday, October 2 and Wednesday, October 4), we are planning not to post, though that could change.
The regular schedule of written columns on Mondays and podcasts on Wednesdays will resume the following week.
To all who are observing and celebrating, our wishes for a meaningful and joyous High Holiday season.
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