Israeli Supreme Court hears first challenge to Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul

By ISABEL DEBRE
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Supreme Court has begun hearing petitions to strike down a law that curbs its own powers, pushing the country toward a showdown with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government over the first part of its deeply contentious judicial overhaul. In a sign of the case’s significance, all 15 of Israel’s Supreme Court justices were in court on Tuesday, for the first time in Israel’s history, to hear appeals to the law together. The law, which parliament passed in July, cancels the court’s ability to strike down government decisions it deems to be “unreasonable.” It is the first piece of the wider plan by Netanyahu’s government to weaken the Supreme Court and give more power to the governing coalition.