Israel's Labor Party withdrawals from judicial reform negotiations
'The talks are taking place in the dark, without our involvement, which raises fears of harming the negotiation process'
Israel's Labor Party announced on Sunday its withdrawal from negotiations at President Isaac Herzog's residence on proposed judicial reform, justifying its decision by accusing the coalition of maneuvers and parallel agreements in which Labor has not been involved.
"Despite the doubts that we had expressed about the will of the government and the coalition to reach broad agreements around the reform, we chose to join the negotiation process at the President's House because of our deep concern [...] Despite this, we are learning that conversations are being held in the shadows and that agreements between the parties are being reached without us being involved, which risks hindering the negotiation process and even Israeli democracy," representatives of the party said in a statement.
"In view of these behaviors, it is useless to continue our attempt to participate in the talks held at the President's residence and we announce the withdrawal of our participation in the negotiation process. However, the Labor Party will continue to fight for Israeli democracy in the Knesset, on the streets, in demonstrations, in the media and in any other arena alongside the Israeli public," the statement said.
"We will follow the negotiations carefully, while maintaining the requirement of transparency and remaining firm on the red lines of Israeli democracy," it added.
"The president's residence is open and will continue to be open to all those who wish to be part of the negotiations in order to reach as broad agreements as possible," Herzog's office reacted.
https://x.com/i/web/status/1647561888308273154
This post can't be displayed because social networks cookies have been deactivated. You can activate them by clicking .
At the same time, senior coalition officials recently hinted that they believe the reform should be approved by the Knesset by July. According to a senior coalition official who recently spoke to Maariv, it seems that the deadline for the end of the talks will correspond to the deadline for approving the state budget for 2023: May 29.
If the finance law is not approved by this date, the 25th Knesset will automatically be dissolved and new elections will be announced.
Meanwhile, Yisrael Beiteinu head Avigdor Lieberman called on Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and the president of the National Unity party, Benny Gantz, to immediately stop talks with the coalition on judicial reform at the president's residence.