Israel’s Supreme Court struck down a key judicial reform law through which Benjamin Netanyahu’s government sought to limit the powers of the top judiciary, sparking a months-long wave of protests.

Eight of the Supreme Court’s fifteen judges voted to strike down the provision that removed the Court’s authority to rule on the “reasonableness” of decisions by the Israeli government and the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and thereby invalidate them.

Reactions to the Supreme Court decision

Israel’s Justice Minister Yariv Levin has accused the country’s Supreme Court of “grabbing all the powers” after striking down a key judicial reform law the Netanyahu government tried to push through.

“In practice, the judges (of the Supreme Court) take into his hands, with this decision, all the powers which, in a democratic regime, are divided against? balanced way between three powers”, the executive, legislative and judicial, the minister wrote on Telegram criticizing the publication of this decision “in the midst of war (in the Gaza Strip), contrary to the unity that is necessary these days for the success of our fighters at the front”.

Netanyahu’s Likud party also invokes “unity” to criticize the Supreme Court’s decision.

The decision of the Supreme Court is against the will of the people for unity, especially in wartime, a Likud statement said.