Setback for Netanyahu Supreme court throws out PM's judicial overhaul law

Israel's supreme court has overturned a law at the heart of the prime minister's controversial judicial overhaul project, potentially plunging the country into political crisis as it fights a major war in Gaza and faces the spectre of regional escalation.

- Emma Graham-Harrison

The judges ruled yesterday by a slim majority of eight to seven to throw out a law passed by Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right coalition government that curtailed the court's own powers, saying it would severely damage Israel's democracy.

In July, after seven months of debate, the government passed a law scrapping the "reasonableness" clause that allows Israel's unelected supreme court to overrule government decisions.

The ruling to throw out that legislation, made in a historic first full sitting of the 15-member court, could reignite tensions that roiled Israel over the summer and split the unity government in the wake of Hamas's 7 October attacks.

The judicial overhaul project led to months of mass protests that brought Netanyahu's government under domestic and international pressure.

It widened already deep religious, ethnic and class divides in Israel, threw the military into chaos and damaged both its currency - the shekel - and its relations with allies.